Measurements of central tendency are summary statistics that describe the center or midpoint of a dataset. The three most commonly used measures of central tendency in statistics are:
Mean: The arithmetic mean, or simply the mean, is the sum of all the values in a dataset divided by the total number of values. It is often used to describe the typical value of a continuous variable. For example, the mean height of a group of people can be calculated by adding up the heights of all the individuals in the group and dividing by the total number of individuals.
Median: The median is the middle value in a dataset when the values are arranged in order of magnitude. It is often used when the distribution of the data is skewed or contains outliers. For example, the median income of a population can be used to describe the typical income level when the distribution of incomes is not symmetric.
Mode: The mode is the most frequently occurring value in a dataset. It is often used to describe the most common value or category in a categorical variable. For example, the mode of a dataset containing colors of cars might be blue, indicating that blue is the most common color of cars in the dataset.
Each of these measures of central tendency has its own strengths and weaknesses, and the choice of which to use depends on the characteristics of the dataset and the research question being addressed.