What do measures of central tendency include?

Measures of central tendency specifically refer to statistical values that aim to describe the center or typical value of a dataset. The primary measures of central tendency are the mean, median, and mode.

The mean is the average of all values in the dataset, calculated by summing all the values and dividing by the count of values. The median represents the middle value when the dataset is ordered from least to greatest. If the dataset has an even number of values, the median is the average of the two middle values. The mode is the value that appears most frequently in the dataset.

These three measures provide different perspectives on what's considered "central" in a dataset, making them essential tools for analyzing and interpreting data. In contrast, other choices include measures that pertain to the spread or variability of data rather than its central tendency, such as variance and standard deviation, or they mix concepts that do not fit within the definition of central tendency.