MEDIAN
Statistical
Returns the median (middle value) of the given numbers.
Translations
EnglishMEDIAN
FrenchMEDIANE
SpanishMEDIANA
GermanMEDIAN
ItalianMEDIANA
PortugueseMED
DutchMEDIAAN
PolishMEDIANA
RussianМЕДИАНА
TurkishORTANCA
CzechMEDIAN
HungarianMEDIÁN
SwedishMEDIAN
DanishMEDIAN
FinnishMEDIAANI
Syntax
MEDIAN(number1, [number2], ...)Arguments
number1First number or rangenumber2Additional numbers(optional)
Examples
=MEDIAN(1,2,3,4,5)3
Middle value of odd count
=MEDIAN(A1:A100)Middle value
Median of range
=MEDIAN(1,2,3,4)2.5
Average of two middle values
Tips & Best Practices
- •More robust than AVERAGE for outliers
- •Text and empty cells are ignored
- •Even count returns average of two middle values
Common Mistakes
- •Assuming a manually curated range automatically excludes a stray label or heading row - MEDIAN ignores text and blanks, but only if they're genuinely empty or non-numeric, not miscounted as data
- •Expecting MEDIAN to behave like AVERAGE with outliers - the whole point of median is that it's not pulled by extreme values, which surprises people who actually want the mean
- •Not realizing that with an even number of values, MEDIAN averages the two middle numbers, which won't necessarily match any actual value in the data set
Related Functions
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is MEDIAN so different from AVERAGE on my data?
That usually means there are outliers or a skewed distribution - a few very high or low values pull AVERAGE a lot, but barely affect MEDIAN at all.
What does MEDIAN return for an even number of values?
It averages the two middle values, so the result might not match any single value actually in your data set.
Does MEDIAN ignore text and blank cells?
Yes, both are excluded from the calculation automatically, the same way AVERAGE handles them.
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