What does the term 'median' refer to in a given data set?

The term 'median' refers specifically to the middle value in a data set when the numbers are organized in ascending or descending order. To find the median, you would first arrange all the numbers from the smallest to the largest. If there is an odd number of values in the set, the median is simply the number that is positioned in the middle. In cases where there is an even number of values, the median is calculated by taking the average of the two middle numbers.

Understanding the median is crucial because it provides a measure of central tendency that is not affected by extreme values or outliers, unlike the mean. This makes the median a useful statistic for understanding the typical value in a data set.