Central Tendency

Central tendency is a statistics term that is used to describe where the middle of a data set lies. The challenge is that there are a few different ways to describe where that middle lies.

Central Tendency Data Crunching

There are three common ways to describe the centering of data.

1. Mean (or average): the sum of all data points divided by the number of data points
2. Median: the data point with an equal number of data points above and below it
3. Mode: the most frequent data point

Knowing the central tendency helps you determine where a particular data point fits relative to the data set. For example, if you took a test, and got an 86%, you are missing a key piece of information. You have no idea if you did well, compared to others taking the test. If I told you the class average was a 71%, you know that you did better than most. If the average was a 97%, you probably did not study enough.

Similarly, if the median was an 89%, you know that the majority did better than you.

Make sure the way you measure central tendency matches the way you need to use the data.