Calculate the average of a group of numbers (2024)

Calculate the average of a group of numbers

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Let's say you want to find the average number of days to complete a tasks by different employees. Or, you want to calculate the average temperature on a particular day over a 10-year time span. There are several ways to calculate the average of a group of numbers.

The AVERAGE function measures central tendency, which is the location of the center of a group of numbers in a statistical distribution. The three most common measures of central tendency are:

  • Average This is the arithmetic mean, and is calculated by adding a group of numbers and then dividing by the count of those numbers. For example, the average of 2, 3, 3, 5, 7, and 10 is 30 divided by 6, which is 5.

  • Median The middle number of a group of numbers. Half the numbers have values that are greater than the median, and half the numbers have values that are less than the median. For example, the median of 2, 3, 3, 5, 7, and 10 is 4.

  • ModeThe most frequently occurring number in a group of numbers. For example, the mode of 2, 3, 3, 5, 7, and 10 is 3.

For a symmetrical distribution of a group of numbers, these three measures of central tendency are all the same. In a skewed distribution of a group of numbers, they can be different.

Do the following:

  1. Click a cell below, or to the right, of the numbers for which you want to find the average.

  2. On the Home tab, in the Editing group, click the arrow next to Calculate the average of a group of numbers (1)AutoSum , click Average, and then press Enter.

To do this task, use the AVERAGE function. Copy the table below to a blank worksheet.

Formula

Description (Result)

=AVERAGE(A2:A7)

Averages all of numbers in list above (9.5)

=AVERAGE(A2:A4,A7)

Averages the top three and the last number in the list (7.5)

=AVERAGEIF(A2:A7, "<>0")

Averages the numbers in the list except those that contain zero, such as cell A6 (11.4)

To do this task, use the SUMPRODUCT and SUM functions. vThis example calculates the average price paid for a unit across three purchases, where each purchase is for a different number of units at a different price per unit.

Copy the table below to a blank worksheet.

1

2

3

4

A

B

Price per unit

Number of units

20

500

25

750

35

200

Formula

Description (Result)

=SUMPRODUCT(A2:A4,B2:B4)/SUM(B2:B4)

Divides the total cost of all three orders by the total number of units ordered (24.66)

To do this task, use the AVERAGE and IF functions. Copy the table below, and keep in mind that this example may be easier to understand if you copy it to a blank worksheet.

Formula

Description (Result)

=AVERAGEIF(A2:A7, "<>0")

Averages the numbers in the list except those that contain zero, such as cell A6 (11.4)

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See Also

AVERAGE

AVERAGEIF

SUM

SUMPRODUCT

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Calculate the average of a group of numbers (2024)

FAQs

Calculate the average of a group of numbers? ›

Average This is the arithmetic mean, and is calculated by adding a group of numbers and then dividing by the count of those numbers. For example, the average of 2, 3, 3, 5, 7, and 10 is 30 divided by 6, which is 5.

How do you find the average of a group of numbers? ›

How to calculate average. The average of a set of numbers is simply the sum of the numbers divided by the total number of values in the set.

How do you average a list of numbers? ›

Average means adding up all the items to the list and then dividing by the number of numbers in the list.

What is the formula to find the average of numbers? ›

Average = Sum of Values/Number of Values

In this article, we are going to learn the definition of average, symbol, average formula in Maths, and steps to calculate the average, and many solved examples in detail.

What are the 3 ways to calculate average? ›

The 3 types of averages are the mean, median, and mode. All these three kinds of mean give a different estimate of the summary of the given data. The mean is the sum of the data points divided by the number of data points. The median is obtained by arranging the data in ascending order and taking the middlemost value.

How do you find the average percentage of multiple numbers? ›

Divide the sum of the percentages by the sum of the total products produced from each category. So, 615 divided by 900 is equal to 0.68. Multiply this decimal by 100 to get the average percentage. So, 0.68 times 100 equals 68, or 68%.

What is the average of a list of 4 numbers? ›

The average is simply the sum of the numbers in a given problem, divided by the number of numbers added together. For example, if four number are added together their sum is divided by four to find the average or arithmetic mean. Average or arithmetic mean is sometimes confused with two other concepts: mode and median.

Can you average a list of averages? ›

If you attempt to create an “average of averages”, the single data point will disproportionately affect the outcome. The average of 10,000 data items basically gets valued at the same rate as the average of the single data point. The “average of averages” would be 6, but the correct average of all values would be 10.

How do I average a list of numbers in Excel? ›

Click a cell below the column or to the right of the row of the numbers for which you want to find the average. On the HOME tab, click the arrow next to AutoSum > Average, and then press Enter.

Why do we calculate average? ›

Averages are used to compare differing quantities of the same category. For example, to compute the per-employee salary of an organization, averages have to be used because there are differences in the salaries of several employees.

What is the median of 8 6 9 2 5 3 7? ›

The student wants to find the median of a series of numbers: 8 6 9 2 5 3 7. First, arrange these numbers in ascending order, this becomes: 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. The median is the middle number in an ordered set of numbers. In our case, since there are 7 numbers, the median is the fourth number, which here is 6.

What is the average rule in math? ›

The general average formula is mathematically expressed as Average = {Sum of Observations} ÷ {Total number of Observations}.

How to calculate the mean? ›

To calculate the mean, you first add all the numbers together (3 + 11 + 4 + 6 + 8 + 9 + 6 = 47). Then you divide the total sum by the number of scores used (47 / 7 = 6.7). In this example, the mean or average of the number set is 6.7.

What is another word for the average of the numbers in a list of numbers? ›

Some common synonyms of average are mean, median, and norm. While all these words mean "something that represents a middle point," average is the quotient obtained by dividing the sum total of a set of figures by the number of figures.

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