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In statistics, the median is the middle of a distribution in the sense that half the values are below and half are above the median. The median is an important statistical measure in many business contexts. For example, the median household income in the US is the level of income at which half of the household earned more, and the other half earned less. Detailed statistics sometimes report both the median and the (arithmetic mean. The comparison between the median and mean suggests the distribution’s shape. Where the mean and median are equal, the distribution will tend to be symmetrical. If the distribution has a long right tale, the mean tends to be higher than the median. In residential real estate, home price statistics in particularly expensive areas are more likely to report both the median and mean prices for a given period. In those areas, the highest priced properties usually increase the mean more than the median. In Manhattan, the mean apartment price is typically higher than the median price by a few hundred thousand dollars. |
