Statistical location Mean

comparison of arithmetic mean, median , mode of 2 skewed (log-normal) distributions.



geometric visualisation of mode, median , mean of arbitrary probability density function.

in descriptive statistics, mean may confused median, mode or mid-range, of these may called average (more formally, measure of central tendency). mean of set of observations arithmetic average of values; however, skewed distributions, mean not same middle value (median), or value (mode). example, mean income typically skewed upwards small number of people large incomes, majority have income lower mean. contrast, median income level @ half population below , half above. mode income income, , favors larger number of people lower incomes. while median , mode more intuitive measures such skewed data, many skewed distributions in fact best described mean, including exponential , poisson distributions.