How to use this mode calculator
Paste your values above and press Calculate. The mode appears in the summary, along with every value's rivals, and if two or more values tie, all of them are reported.
What is the mode?
The mode is the value that occurs most often. It is the only average defined for pure categories: the modal shoe size, the modal bus route, the modal answer on a survey. No arithmetic is involved at all, just counting, which is why the mode survives where means and medians cannot even be computed.
A shoe shop's morning sales (UK sizes): 7, 8, 8, 9, 7, 8, 10, 8, 9, 7. Counting up: 7 appears three times, 8 appears four times, 9 twice, 10 once. The mode is 8, and that single number is a stocking decision: when shelf space is limited, size 8 gets the deepest shelf.
Bimodal, multimodal, no mode
Two values tied at the top make a dataset bimodal, often a sign that two different groups have been mixed together (children's and adults' shoes in one list, for instance). Several tied values: multimodal. Every value appearing once: no mode, which is itself useful information: the data has no favourite.
Frequently asked questions
How do you find the mode?
Count how often each value occurs; the most frequent value is the mode. If several values tie, all of them are modes.
Can a dataset have no mode?
Yes. If every value occurs the same number of times (for example, each exactly once), there is no mode.
What is a bimodal distribution?
A distribution with two modes. It often indicates the data mixes two underlying groups, which is worth investigating before summarising further.