Editing Average (section)

{{For|the Canadian artist|Joe Average}}
{{Short description|Number taken as representative of a list of numbers}}
[[File:MeansAsChords.svg|thumb|Average of chords]]
In [[colloquial|ordinary]] language, an '''average''' is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the [[arithmetic mean]]{{snd}} the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list. For example, the mean or average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, and 9 (summing to 25) is 5. Depending on the context, the most representative [[statistics|statistic]] to be taken as the average might be another measure of [[central tendency]], such as the [[mid-range]], [[median]], [[Mode (statistics)|mode]] or [[geometric mean]]. For example, the average [[income|personal income]] is often given as the median{{snd}} the number below which are 50% of personal incomes and above which are 50% of personal incomes{{snd}} because the [[mean]] would be higher by including personal incomes from a few [[billionaire]]s.