Quickly calculate the median, the middle value, of a list of numbers.
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The median is the middle value of a data set once it's sorted in order. For an odd number of values, it's the single middle value. For an even number of values, it's the average of the two middle values. This calculator sorts your list automatically and shows the sorted order alongside the result.
Unlike the average (mean), the median isn't pulled by extreme outliers, a single very large or very small value barely affects it, since only the middle position matters, not the actual magnitude of every value. This is why median is often used for figures like household income or home prices, where a few extreme values could otherwise skew the average significantly.
For the numbers 12, 18, 25, 30 and 45 (5 values, an odd count, already sorted): the median is simply the single middle value, 25, with two values below it and two above it. If a sixth value were added, say 50 (making 12, 18, 25, 30, 45, 50), the median would instead be the average of the two middle values, 25 and 30: (25 + 30) ÷ 2 = 27.5.
Finding the middle value of the unsorted list, the median depends on sorted order, not the order values were typed in, this calculator sorts automatically, but doing it by hand requires sorting first.
Forgetting to average the two middle values for an even-count data set, and instead picking just one of them, an even count has no single middle value, so both middle values need to be averaged.
Assuming median and average will always be close together, they can differ substantially in skewed data sets, that gap is actually informative, a large difference between the two often signals the presence of outliers pulling the average away from the typical value.
The median is the average of the two middle values once the list is sorted, for example, the median of 4, 8, 15, 23 is (8 + 15) ÷ 2 = 11.5.
Median only depends on which value occupies the middle position after sorting, not the magnitude of any individual value, so an extremely large or small outlier can shift the sort order slightly but generally doesn't change the median much, unlike the average, which directly incorporates every value's magnitude.
This tool shows only the median (plus count and sorted list) for a quick, focused result. The Statistics Calculator computes a full set of descriptive statistics at once, including mean, mode, standard deviation, variance and quartiles.
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