Average Calculator

Average Calculator takes a list of numbers and returns the summary statistics that describe it. The mean is the familiar arithmetic average. The median is the middle value once the list is sorted, which is the more honest measure when a few extreme values would drag the mean away from where most of the data sits. The mode is whichever value appears most often, and a list can have several modes or none at all.

Alongside those you get the count, the sum, the smallest and largest values, the range between them, the variance and the standard deviation. Standard deviation is the one worth understanding: it says how spread out the numbers are, in the same units as the data, so two sets with the same mean but different standard deviations are immediately distinguishable.

Numbers can be separated however you have them, by commas, spaces, line breaks or tabs, which means you can paste a column straight from a spreadsheet without reformatting it. Both the sample and population forms of variance and standard deviation are shown, because statistics courses and real datasets disagree about which is wanted.

• Mean, median, mode, range, sum, count, minimum and maximum
• Variance and standard deviation in both sample and population forms
• Accepts commas, spaces, tabs and line breaks as separators
• Handles negative numbers and decimals
• Shows the sorted list so you can check the parse
• Reports any entries it could not read as numbers
• Copy the full summary

The average calculator is used by writers, developers, students, marketers and anyone else who needs the job done once without installing software. Common cases include:

• Working out an average mark or score
• Summarising a column of figures from a spreadsheet
• Checking homework on mean, median and mode
• Finding how spread out a set of measurements is
• Summarising survey responses or timing results