Britannica
Sources used in this answer
How is the median found when a data set contains an even number of values?
Created from Britannica articles
using AI.
AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
statistics
Figure 1: A bar graph showing the marital status of 100 individuals.
To find the median of a data set with an even number of values, you must first arrange the numbers in order from smallest to largest. Because there is no single middle value in an even-numbered set, the median is calculated by finding the arithmetic mean of the two central values.1
This is done by adding the two middle numbers together and dividing their sum by two.1