What does the term "median" refer to in statistics?

The term "median" refers to the middle value in a sorted data set. To determine the median, you first arrange the data points in ascending order. If there is an odd number of values, the median is simply the middle number. If there is an even number of values, the median is calculated as the average of the two middle numbers. This measurement is particularly useful because it represents the point at which half of the values lie below and half lie above, making it a valuable measure of central tendency, especially in skewed distributions.

The other concepts mentioned, such as average (which refers to the mean), mode (the most frequently occurring value), and the largest value, do not accurately define the median and serve different purposes in data analysis. Hence, recognizing the median's role helps in understanding the distribution of the data more effectively.