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Statistical function
MEDIAN
Returns the middle value, unaffected by outliers.
Very commonDifficulty 950 · CapableUsage rank #63 of 520
When to use it
The middle value: half the numbers are above it and half below. It ignores how extreme the extremes are, which makes it the honest average for salaries, house prices, and cycle times.
The shape of it
- Syntax
=MEDIAN(number1, [number2], ...)
Worked examples
Even count
=MEDIAN(1,2,3,100) → 2.5
An even count averages the two middle values. The 100 barely matters.
Odd count
=MEDIAN(3,1,2) → 2
Order does not matter.
Robust average
=MEDIAN(A2:A101) → 52,000
Salaries where a few executives push the mean to 68,000.
Worth knowing
- Report MEDIAN next to AVERAGE; a big gap means the distribution is skewed.
- Conditional median: =MEDIAN(IF(C2:C100="West",G2:G100)) as an array formula, or MEDIAN(FILTER(...)) in Microsoft 365.
- PERCENTILE.INC(range,0.5) is the same number.
Where it goes wrong
- Blanks and text are ignored, so the median is over fewer values than the row count.
- Half-way between two integers can look odd for count data.
Related
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