Syntax
MEDIAN(value1, [value2, ...])
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| value1 | Parameter of the MEDIAN function. |
| [value2 | (Optional.) Parameter of the MEDIAN function. |
| ...] | Parameter of the MEDIAN function. |
Examples
Median home price
Formula
=MEDIAN(C2:C150)
Returns the middle sale price from 149 home sales. If sorted, this is the 75th value — half the homes sold for more, half for less.
Median of specific values
Formula
=MEDIAN(12, 15, 100, 18, 14)
Returns 15. The sorted list is 12, 14, 15, 18, 100 — the middle value is 15. Note how the outlier (100) doesn't pull the result up like AVERAGE would.
Median response time
Formula
=MEDIAN(E2:E5000)
Returns the median server response time. Useful because a few slow requests (timeouts) won't inflate this metric the way an average would.
Common Errors
#NUM!
Returned when the range contains no numeric values. At least one number is required.
#VALUE!
Occurs if a non-numeric argument is supplied directly, such as =MEDIAN("abc").
Tips
Even number of values
When there is an even count of numbers, MEDIAN returns the average of the two middle values. For example, MEDIAN(1,3,5,7) returns 4.
Better than AVERAGE for skewed data
Use MEDIAN instead of AVERAGE when your data has extreme values. Salary data is a classic case — a few executives earning millions would inflate the average far above what most employees actually earn.
Combine with IF for filtered median
There is no built-in MEDIANIF, but you can use an array formula like =MEDIAN(IF(A2:A100="East",B2:B100)) to get the median for a specific group.
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