Median & Mode Calculator
Median and mode together — the middle value once sorted, and the most frequently repeated value — for the two summary statistics the plain average can hide entirely.
Inputs
Result
Median 8
Mode 7 (appears 2×)
How the median & mode calculator works
Sort the list. With an odd count, the median is the single middle value; with an even count, it's the average of the two middle values.
Mode is whichever value appears most often. If several values tie for the most repeats, the tool reports the first one found among the tied values.
Worked example: 4, 7, 7, 9, 12, 15
- Sorted (already sorted here): 4, 7, 7, 9, 12, 15 — 6 values, so median = (7+9) ÷ 2 = 8.
- 7 appears twice, more than any other value, so the mode is 7.
Common mistakes to avoid
Expecting a mode from data with no repeated value
If every number in the list is unique, the reported 'mode' will technically be whichever value the tool encounters, but it carries no real statistical meaning since nothing actually repeats.
Confusing median with mean
Median is a position (the middle after sorting); mean is a calculation (sum over count). They coincide only for symmetric data and diverge sharply when a data set is skewed.
Frequently asked questions
Why might median be more useful than mean for something like income data?
A handful of very high incomes pull the mean upward without changing the median much, so median better reflects what a 'typical' person in the group actually earns.
Can a data set have more than one mode?
Yes, when two or more values tie for the highest frequency — this is called bimodal (two) or multimodal (more) data, though this tool reports only the single most frequent value found first.
Does the mode calculation care about decimal precision?
Yes — 7 and 7.0 are treated as the same value, but 7 and 7.01 are treated as distinct values that won't count toward the same mode.
How is this different from the Statistics Calculator?
This tool focuses specifically on median and mode; the Statistics Calculator additionally reports the mean and standard deviation from the same data.
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