Properties

Properties of Mean, Median and Modeof Mean, Median and Mode

Properties of Mean 2. It is not affected by extremely large or
small values and is therefore a valuable
1. Mean can be calculated for any set of
measure of central tendency when such
numerical data.
values occur.
2. A set of numerical data has one and only
3. It is not applicable to qualitative data.
one mean.
4. Median is used when the data are
3. Mean is the most reliable measure of
ordinal.
central tendency since it takes into
account every item in the set of data. 5. Median can determine by graphic
method.
4. The mean is affected by unusually large
or small data values. 6. The sum of the absolute deviations taken
from the median is less than the sum of
5. The sum of the differences between
the absolute deviations taken from any
individual observations and the mean is
other observation in the data.
zero.
When to use the median?
6. The product of the mean and the
number of items on which mean is based The median is used when either one of two
is equal to the sum of all given items. conditions are met. If the,

7. The sum of squares of deviation of set of 1. Data is ordinal

values about its mean is minimum. 2. Distribution is skewed or non-normal.

8. If each item of the original series is Properties of Mode

replaced by the actual mean, then the
1. The mode is the easiest to compute.
sum of those substitutions will be equal to
the sum of the individual items. 2. The mode is not always unique. A data
set can have more than on mode, or the
9. Mean is not independent of change of
mode may not exist for a data set.
origin and change of scale.
3. Can be used for qualitative as well as
When to use the mean?
quantitative data.
The mean is used when both of the following
4. Not affected by extreme values.
conditions are met:
5. The mode can be used when the data
1. Data is scaled
are nominal or categorical, such as
a) Data with equal intervals like speed,
religious preference, gender, or political
weight, height, temperature, etc.
affiliation.
2. Distribution is normal
b) The mean is sensitive to outliers that 6. It cannot be manipulated algebraically:
are found in skewed distributions, you modes of subgroups cannot be
should only use the mean when the combined.
distribution is more or less normal.
When to use the mode?
Properties of Median
The Mode is used when you want to know
1. There is a unique median for each data the most frequent response, number or
set. observation in a distribution.