Measures of

Central Tendency
Lesson 3
 Objectives
At the end of this lesson, the students should be able to:

Differentiate Compute for the Identify when to

Mean, Mean, the use the Mean, the
Median, and Median, and the Median, and the
Mode Mode Mode
After data has been gathered, it has to be
put into a form that can be interpreted.
One of the statistics usually computed for
a set of data is the measure of central
tendency, the average.
Average is a single figure that stands for
or represents a group of figures.
Measure of Central Tendency
(also referred to as measure of center or
central location) is a summary measure that
attempts to describe a whole set of data with
a single value that represents the middle or
center of its distribution.
There are three (3) main
Three ways of
measures of central
measuring central
tendency :
tendency or average:
Mean Median Mode
Each of these measures Mean (x)
describes a different
indication of the typical Median (Md)
or central value in the
Mode (Mo)
distribution.
 The Mean (x)
Example Data:
AGE FREQUENCY
54 3 To find the mean, (1) add up all
55 1 the numbers, (2) then divide by
56 1 how many numbers there are.
57 2 This is also known as the
58 2
arithmetic average.
60 2
Formula:
σ𝑥
x=
𝑛
where n is the number of occurrences or data
54+54+54+55+56+57+57+58+58+60+60
=
11
=623/11
=56.6 years
 The mean for a grouped data requires:

Getting the Multiplying Dividing the

mean for each the frequency total (fx) by n
class by the mean or number of
(fx) occurrences
Example:
SCORE FREQUENCY (F) 𝒙 fx
70-74 13 72 936
75-79 13 77 1001
80-84 19 82 1558
85-89 8 87 696
90-94 7 92 644
Total n=60 4835
x is the mean or midpoint of the class. It is
adding the class limits and dividing the sum by 2:
x = (70+74)/2 =72
(75+79)/2 =77
(80+84)/2 =82
(85+89)/2 =87
(90+94)/2 =92
Then, multiply the x for each class by its
frequency to get the fx in the table. Adding all
the fxs, we get 4819. The mean would be:
σ𝑥 4835
x= = = 80.58
𝑛 60
Note that the mean is within the class (80-84)
with the highest frequency (19)
 The Median (Md)
The Median is the middle value or midpoint in a
distribution when the values are arranged in ascending or
descending order. The median divides the distribution in
half (there are 50% of observations on neither side of the
median value). These halves meet at the median position. If
the number of observation is odd, the median fits perfectly
and depth of the median position will be a whole number.
If the number of observations is even, the depth of the
median position will include a decimal.
Finding the median for a grouped data
The median in the class where the cumulative frequency
reaches half the sum of the absolute frequencies. The
following formula is adopted from
𝑛
−𝑐𝑓
Md =𝐿𝑚 + 2
i
𝑓𝑚

𝑳𝒎 is the lower boundary of the median class;

n/2 is half the sum of the absolute frequencies;
cf is the cumulative frequency immediately above the median class;
𝒇𝒎 is the frequency of the median class; and
i is the class width.
Using the data on the scores obtained in an accounting quiz:
SCORE FREQUENCY Cumulative
F Frequency
70-74 13 13
75-79 13 26
80-84 19 45
85-89 8 53
90-94 7 60
Total n=60
 𝑛
−𝑐𝑓
Md =𝐿𝑚 + 2
i
𝑓𝑚
𝐿𝑚 = 79.5 (between the 79 upper limit of the class above the median
class and the 80 lower limit of the median class)
n/2 = 60/2 = 30 cf = 26
𝑓𝑚 = 19 i=5
30−26
Md = 79.5 + 5 = 79.5 + (4/19) 5 = 79.5 + 1 = 80.5
19
Take note that our mean for the same grouped data of
80.32 is very near the median. The median falls within the
median class, which has the highest frequency, 80-84.
 The Mode (Mo)
To find the mode of modal value, place the numbers in
value order (either ascending or descending), then
count how many are there for each numbers. The
mode is the number that appears most often (the one
with the highest frequency). If all values occur only
once, there would be no mode; however, there can be
more than one mode. When data are grouped, the
mode is defined as the midpoint of the interval
containing the largest number of cases.
In our set of data of scores on an accounting quiz:
SCORE FREQUENCY The interval containing the
F largest number of cases
70-74 13 (frequency of 19) is 80-84. The
75-79 13 midpoint of 80-84 is 82, which is
80-84 19 therefore, the mode.
85-89 8 Alternatively, it is the mean of
90-94 7 the two scores or
Total 60 (80 + 84)/2 = 82
Example:
Abigail Monte Vista manages a coffee house
called Our Snack Bar. The owner wants to know
the average length of employment at the
coffee house. Abigail gathered the data
relative to those who left the coffee house for
the said period. Below are the lengths of time
the said employees stayed with the coffee
house:
Willie Reve 60 months
Roger Santos 45 months
Sherry Reyes 32 months
Geri Dela Rosa 8 months
Cresia Montenegro 13 months
Rody Herrera 32 months
Merrylle Lopez 20 months
Erlinda Montes 32 months
 Compute for the mean, median, and mode

The mean would be the sum of the lengths of

time divide by 8, which would be:
60+45+32+8+13+32+20+32
Mean =
8
242
=
8
= 30.25 months
Compute for the mean, median, and mode

The median would be the middle of the values,

therefore, if we arrange the figures:
8 13 20 32 32 32 45 60
Since there are 8 figures, to get the median, we get
the mean of the two middle values, which are 32
and 32 which will give us 32 (32 + 32)/2
Compute for the mean, median, and mode

The mode is the one with the

highest frequency, which in this
case is also 32.