Mean, also technically known as arithmetic mean, is the average of a set of values. The mean of a data set or distribution is the averaged value of the entire set of data. When averages are generally referred to without specification to which particular type of average, the arithmetic mean is generally the calculation being discussed. Other more specific types of mean averages include geometric means and harmonic means which are both used for more specific types of math and are used much less in simple daily calculations.

Mean, the simplest form of average calculations used in mathematics, is frequently used in statistics. Mean is often confused with other common statistical average measures such as mode and median.

Calculating the mean of a set of data is a straightforward calculation which involves two simple steps. The first step is to add all of the values of the data set together. The second step is to divide this total by the total amount of numbers in the data set.

For example, let’s examine a set of data which contains test scores for an advanced college algebra course with 8 students enrolled. The final exam scores for the 8 students are as follows: [68,92,84,73,94,65,87,81]. To find the mean, we first calculate the total of all of the test scores by adding them together which results in 644. Next, we divide the overall score total by the number of individual scores (8). Dividing 644 by 8 results in an average test score 80.5. 80.5 is the arithmetic mean for this particular data set.

To use our mean calculator, simply enter your data set with all values separated by commas and no spaces. For example: 1,1,4,5,6.