Average Calculator
Calculate the mean, median, mode, range, sum, min, and max of any list of numbers. Enter values separated by commas. Free statistics calculator.
Reviewed for accuracy by Marcus Webb and the Blueprint Dynamics editorial team (last updated July 2026). Our calculators use primary-source formulas and are cross-checked against IRS publications, Fannie Mae guidelines, and Federal Reserve data. Learn more about our methodology.
Enter a list of numbers above to calculate the mean, median, mode, and more.
Mean, median, and mode — when to use each
Three different statistics all get called "average" in everyday use, but they measure different things. The mean (arithmetic average) is the sum of all values divided by the count — most useful when data is symmetrically distributed without extreme outliers. The median is the middle value when data is sorted — more representative when data is skewed by extreme values. The mode is the most frequently occurring value — most useful for categorical data or discrete counts. For normally distributed data (the classic bell curve), all three are nearly identical, which is why the mean is usually reported. When data is skewed, they diverge significantly.
When median beats mean
Household income is the classic example. In a neighborhood where 9 households earn $50,000 and one household earns $5,000,000: mean income = (9 × $50,000 + $5,000,000) / 10 = $545,000. Median income = $50,000. The mean is technically correct but wildly unrepresentative of the typical household. This is why economists report median household income rather than mean income — and why real estate uses median home prices. Any time one extreme value can disproportionately shift the result, the median is usually the more informative statistic.
Weighted averages and when they matter
A weighted average assigns different importance to different values based on a weight. GPA is a weighted average — a 4-credit course counts more than a 1-credit elective. A portfolio return is a weighted average — a 60% allocation to stocks counts more than a 10% allocation to bonds. An unweighted average treats all values equally, which is appropriate when all items have the same importance or size. When combining averages from groups of different sizes, use a weighted average: combining a 20% pass rate from 100 students with a 80% pass rate from 900 students gives (20×0.2 + 80×0.9)/100 = 72%, not the naive (20%+80%)/2 = 50%.
Moving averages for trend analysis
A moving average smooths a time series by replacing each value with the average of surrounding values over a window. A 7-day moving average of daily website traffic takes each day's average of the 7 surrounding days, smoothing out day-of-week variation to reveal the underlying trend. Moving averages are widely used in finance (stock price trends), epidemiology (weekly case counts), and operations (demand forecasting). The longer the window, the smoother the result — but the more lag it introduces, which can mask recent changes.