MEDIAN

See Also

Returns the median of the given numbers. The median is the number in the middle of a set of numbers; that is, half the numbers have values that are greater than the median, and half have values that are less.

Syntax

MEDIAN(number1,number2,...)

Number1, number2, ... are 1 to 30 numbers for which you want the median.

Remarks

The arguments should be either numbers or names, arrays, or references that contain numbers. Microsoft Excel examines all the numbers in each reference or array argument.
If an array or reference argument contains text, logical values, or empty cells, those values are ignored; however, cells with the value zero are included.
If there is an even number of numbers in the set, then MEDIAN calculates the average of the two numbers in the middle. See the second formula in the example.

Example

The example may be easier to understand if you copy it to a blank worksheet.

How?

Create a blank workbook or worksheet.
Select the example in the Help topic. Do not select the row or column headers.

Selecting an example from Help
Press CTRL+C.
In the worksheet, select cell A1, and press CTRL+V.
To switch between viewing the results and viewing the formulas that return the results, press CTRL+` (grave accent), or on the Tools menu, point to Formula Auditing, and then click Formula Auditing Mode.

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Formula	Description (Result)
=MEDIAN(A2:A6)	Median of the first 5 numbers in the list above (3)
=MEDIAN(A2:A7)	Median of all the numbers above, or the average of 3 and 4 (3.5)