The mean, median, and mode all summarize a variable; however, depending on the characteristics of the data (how skewed the data is), one can be more appropriate than another.
- Mean: The sum of the values of a variable divided by the number of observations.
- Median: The middle number in an ascending or descending array of numbers. If the number of numbers is even, then the median is the mean of the two middle numbers.
- Mode: The value in an array of numbers that occurs most frequently.
