The middle number (in a sorted list of numbers). Half the numbers in the list are less, and half the numbers are greater.
To find the Median, place the numbers you are given in value order and find the middle number.
BUT, if there are an even amount of numbers things are slightly different. In that case we need to find the middle pair of numbers, and then find the the value that would be half way between them. This is easily done by adding them together and dividing by two.




1) To find the Median, place the numbers you are given in value order and find the middle number.

Solution : Look at these numbers:

3, 13, 7, 5, 21, 23, 39, 23, 40, 23, 14, 12, 56, 23, 29

If we put those numbers in order we have:

3, 5, 7, 12, 13, 14, 21, 23, 23, 23, 23, 29, 39, 40, 56

There are fifteen numbers. Our middle number will be the eighth number:

3, 5, 7, 12, 13, 14, 21, 23, 23, 23, 23, 29, 39, 40, 56

The median value of this set of numbers is 23.

(Note that it didn't matter if we had some numbers the same in the list)


2) Find the middle pair of numbers, and then find the the value that would be half way between them

3,13,7,5,21,23,23,40,23,14,12,56,23,29

Solution : If we put those numbers in order we have:

3, 5, 7, 12, 13, 14, 21, 23, 23, 23, 23, 29, 40, 56

There are now fourteen numbers and so we don't have just one

middle number, we have a pair of middle numbers:

3, 5, 7, 12, 13, 14, 21, 23, 23, 23, 23, 29, 40, 56

In this example the middle numbers are 21 and 23.

To find the value half-way between them, add them together and divide by 2:

21 + 23 = 44

44 ÷ 2 = 22

And, so, the Median in this example is 22.


3) Find the Median of {12, 3 and 5}.

Solution : Put them in order:

{3, 5, 12},

the middle number is 5, so the median is 5.

If there are two middle numbers (as happens when there are an even amount of numbers) then average those two numbers.

Find the Median of {12, 3, 5 and 2}.
Put them in order: {2, 3, 5, 12},

the middle numbers are 3and 5,

the average of 3 and 5 is 4, so the median is 4.

1) The weekly salaries of six employees at McDonalds are RM140, RM220, RM90, RM180, RM140, RM200. For these six salaries, find the median of these salaries
2) What is the median age of the 7 children whose ages are listed below? The number of tornadoes that have occurred in the U.S. in the last 8 years is listed below. Find the median.

11, 10, 13, 11, 12, 16, 14

3) The number of tornadoes that have occurred in the U.S. in the last 8 years is listed below. Find the median.

684, 764, 1133, 656, 702, 1303, 856, 1132

4) In January of 2006, your family moved to a tropical climate. For the year that followed, you recorded the number of rainy days that occurred each month. Your data contained 14, 14, 10, 12, 11, 13, 11, 11, 14, 10, 13, 8.
a. Find the median for your data set of rainy days.
b. If the number of rainy days doubles each month in the year 2007,
what will be the median for the 2007 data?
c. If, instead, there are three more rainy days per month in the year
2007, what will be the median for the 2007 data?