Home > Statistics Every Writer Should Know > The Stats Board > Discusssion
Find average
Message posted by Melanie on November 9, 1999 at 12:00 AM (ET)
I have a survey that had people rate various categories from 1-4. If I have 0 1's, 2 2's, 4 3's and 6 4's, what is the formula I need to use to find the average?
READERS RESPOND:
(In chronological order. Most recent at the bottom.)
Re: Find average
Message posted by Jack Tomsky on November 9, 1999 at 12:00 AM (ET)
Melanie, take the sum of products of the frequencies and scores and then divide it by the total number of frequencies.
Re: Find average
Message posted by JG on November 10, 1999 at 12:00 AM (ET)
The arithmetic mean is not an appropriate average for this type of data. Use the median or mid-hinge as an average.
Your $5 contribution helps cover part the $500 annual cost of keeping this site online.