Meaning of Arithmetic Mean

The arithmetic mean is calculated by dividing the total value of all observations by the total number of observations. It is commonly referred to as Mean or Average by people in general and is commonly represented by the letter X̄.

A single value used to symbolise a whole set of data is called the Measure of Central Tendency. In comparison to other values, it is a typical value to which the majority of observations are closer. The arithmetic mean is one approach to measure central tendency in statistics. This measure of central tendency involves the condensation of a huge amount of data to a single value. For instance, the average weight of the 20 students in the class is 50 kg. However, one student weighs 48 kg, another student weighs 53 kg, and so on. This means that 50 kg is the one value that represents the average weight of the class and the value is closer to the majority of observations, which is called mean. In real life, the importance of displaying a single value for a huge amount of data makes it simple to examine and analyse a set of data and deduce necessary information from it.