What is a median calculator?
A median calculator finds the central value of a data set after the values are arranged from smallest to largest. It is useful when you want a measure of center that is based on position rather than the size of every observation. For the arithmetic mean, use the Average Calculator.
How does the median calculator work?
The calculator parses the list, sorts it numerically, and checks whether the number of observations is odd or even. An odd-sized set has one middle value. An even-sized set has two middle values, so the calculator averages those two values.
What formula is used for the median?
If your data also needs percentage comparisons, the Percentage Calculator can help.
How do you use this median calculator?
- Enter or paste your numbers.
- Separate values with commas, spaces, semicolons, or line breaks.
- Select Calculate Median.
- Review the median, middle values, minimum, maximum, and range.
Median calculator examples
For 4, 7, 10, 12, 19, the median is 10 because it is the third of five sorted values. For 2, 6, 8, 20, the two middle values are 6 and 8, so the median is 7. If those values represent ratios or proportions, see the Ratio Calculator.
When is median useful?
Median is often useful for skewed data or data that includes outliers because its position changes less than the arithmetic mean when one value becomes extremely large or small. It does not describe spread by itself; for that, use the Standard Deviation Calculator.
What are the calculator's limits?
The calculator accepts up to 10,000 finite numeric values. It sorts numbers numerically rather than alphabetically. Very large values are limited by browser double-precision arithmetic, and display formatting may round long decimal results.
Frequently asked questions about medians
Methodology and calculation scope
Values are parsed as finite JavaScript numbers and sorted in ascending numeric order. The median calculation uses the central index for odd-sized data and the arithmetic mean of the two central values for even-sized data.