Averages
What is the mode?
The mode is the value that appears most often in a set of data.
How to find the mode
1. Look at all the values in the set. 2. Count how many times each value appears. 3. The value that appears the most is the mode.
Good to know
The mode does not have to be the biggest or smallest value — it is simply the one that comes up most often.
Worked examples
From a real context: glove sizes
- A shop sold these glove sizes: 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 4, 4, 2, 4.
- Count each size — size 1: 2 times, size 2: 2 times, size 3: 1 time, size 4: 4 times.
- Size 4 appears the most.
Answer: The mode is size 4.
From a set of numbers: 8, 9, 9, 8, 9, 8, 9
- Count each value — 8 appears 3 times, 9 appears 4 times.
- 9 appears the most.
Answer: The mode is 9.
Where you see this in real life
- The most popular ice-cream flavour a shop sells in a week.
- The shoe size a shop sells most often, so it knows which to reorder.
- The score most people gave a film out of 10.
Key words
- Mode
- A type of average which is the value that occurs the most in a set of data.
- Average
- A way to describe a set of data. It could be the most usual value or the middle value.
- Data
- The information or numbers you have collected.