1332.0.55.002 - Statistical Language!, 2008  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 27/06/2008  First Issue
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Contents >> Mean >> How do you calculate the mean?

HOW DO YOU CALCULATE THE MEAN?

To calculate the mean, add all the values of observations in the set of numbers and divide by the number of observations.

For example let's look at the salaries of nine people in a company.

Employment details of 'The Widget Company'
Observation
Position in company
Salary ($)
1
CEO
100 000
2
Manager
60 000
3
Manager
60 000
4
Factory Worker
50 000
5
Factory Worker
50 000
6
Factory Worker
50 000
7
Factory Worker
50 000
8
Trainee
40 000
9
Trainee
40 000

To obtain the mean salary of all employees we do the following:
      1. Add together all the salaries.
      2. Divide by the number of employees.
      3. The result equals the mean.

This is how it will look for the company above:

Equation: Mean

Thus, the mean income for these nine people is $55,555.56 - in this case a good indication of the central value of the salaries.







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