Microsoft Excel 2003 Functions and Formulas
Calculate the Median of a Group of Numbers
Summary: Determine the middle number of a series in an Excel 2003 spreadsheet.
Although the =average function determines the average number of a series in a Microsoft Excel 2003, sometimes determining the median is helpful.
The median of a group of numbers is the middle number of a series - half of all numbers are above the median, half are below.
Calculating this number requires the =median function:
=median(SERIES)
SERIES is a series of numbers, range, or cells for which you want to find the median.
For example, assuming the following grades spreadsheet:
A B
1 John Smith 95
2 Sue Walker 97
3 Jim Paulson 88
4 Carol Thompson 81
5 Laura Jones 92
6
7 Average: =AVERAGE(B1:B5)
8 Mean: =MEDIAN(B1:B5)
The results would be:
B7: 90.6
B8: 92
Note that according to the Excel 2003 documentation, cells containing text, TRUE/FALSE, or empty cells are ignored.
Also note that if an even number of elements are in SERIES, Excel will average the sum of the two middle numbers to determine the result.
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Last Modified on: August 12, 2008, at 8:54 A.M. EDT
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