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What is a measure of central tendency?
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Measures of central tendency are the most basic and, often, the most informative description of a population’s characteristics. They describe the “average” member of the population of interest. There are three measures of central tendency:

Mean — the sum of a variable’s values divided by the total number of values
Median — the middle value of a variable
Mode — the value that occurs most often

Example:
The incomes of five randomly selected people in the United States are $10,000,$10,000, $45,000,$60,000, and $1,000,000. Mean Income = (10,000 + 10,000 + 45,000 + 60,000 + 1,000,000) / 5 =$225,000

Median Income = $45,000 Modal Income =$10,000

The mean is the most commonly used measure of central tendency. Medians are generally used when a few values are extremely different from the rest of the values (this is called a skewed distribution). For example, the median income is often the best measure of the average income because, while most individuals earn between $0 and \$200,000, a handful of individuals earn millions.

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