How to use this median calculator
Enter your numbers above (order does not matter, the calculator sorts them for you) and press Calculate. The sorted list is shown with the result so you can point at the middle value yourself.
What is the median?
The median is the middle value of a sorted dataset: half the values sit at or below it, half at or above. For an odd count, it is simply the centre value. For an even count, it is the mean of the two centre values. Nothing else about the data (not the size of the biggest value, not the gaps) can move it. That indifference is its superpower.
Commute times again: 22, 28, 25, 31, 24, 27, 35, 24, 29, 25. Sorted: 22, 24, 24, 25, 25, 27, 28, 29, 31, 35. Ten values means no single middle, so the median is (25 + 27) ÷ 2 = 26 minutes, a minute less than the mean of 27. The one awful 35-minute day pushed the mean up; the median shrugged it off. Half her journeys take 26 minutes or less: that is exactly what the median promises.
When the median beats the mean
Any time a few extreme values would distort the picture: salaries (a CEO in the sample), house prices (one mansion on the street), website load times (one frozen server). Official statistics offices report median household income for precisely this reason. If someone quotes you an "average" that feels too good to be true, ask which average it is.
Median vs quartiles
The median is the second quartile (Q2), the 50th percentile. Its siblings Q1 and Q3 split the lower and upper halves, and together the quartiles frame the box of a box plot and define the interquartile range. The quartile calculator builds directly on what you have learned here.
Frequently asked questions
How do you find the median with an even number of values?
Sort the data and average the two middle values. For 3, 5, 8, 10 the median is (5 + 8) ÷ 2 = 6.5.
What if two values tie in the middle?
You still average them. If both middle values are 7, the median is 7.
Is the median affected by outliers?
Barely. An outlier can move the median by at most one position in the sorted list, no matter how extreme it is. That is the main reason to prefer it for skewed data.