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title: Definition of Mean
---

## Definition of Mean

In statistics, the term _mean_ refers to the 'average' value in a collection of data. You can find this value by adding together all of the numbers and then dividing by the total number of values in the collection.

The Mean is the average value of a data set.

The Mean value is calculated by adding each number in a set of data and dividing that total by the amount of numbers in the data set.  

![An example of a Mean calculation](https://github.com/tribalizzles/FreeCodeCamp-projects/blob/master/Mean_Calculation.png?raw=true)

### Example

The mean of ( 5, 8, 10, 12, 15 ) is 8:

_To find the mean we would find the sum of all of these numbers (40) and divide it by the number of values in the collection (5).  40/5 is 8, which is the average value in the collection._

### Median and Mode

Mean is often confused with [median](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median), the value in the middle of the collection and [mode](https://guide.freecodecamp.org/mathematics/definition-of-mode), the value that occurs most frequently in the collection.

### More Information

- <a href = "http://www.mathsisfun.com/definitions/mean.html">Definition of a Mean</a>
- <a href = "http://www.mathsisfun.com/mean.html">How to calculate a Mean</a>