Which jobs use the median?

Answer 1

It is very hard to generalize in this manner. There are times when a set of data is best described by the median. Frequently, both the mean and the median are calculated, and presented. It is not the profession but the characteristics of the data which determines the choice. A tightly controlled experiment, where random effects are small, such as in chemistry or physics would most likely report the mean rather than the median, although both may reported. Remember that median is a robust measure of the center, in that a few numbers which are numerically distant from the normal range will not affect results as much as the numerical average. Frequently, the median home price are stated to avoid unrepresentative (for most of us!) extremely expensive homes. Stating the median salary for a particular group (profession, years of experience, education) would diminish the affects of extreme values. The median income for different countries will not be affected by a very small percentage of the wealthest people in the country. The statistician would report the median when appropriate. For the examples provided, a market analyst involved in housing prices would normally use the median. An economist or financial analyst involved in analyzing salaries or incomes, would also use the median. The list of professions where the data would be more appropriately represented by the median is long. It includes epidemiologists, engineers, astronomers, social workers, and Accountants. Even a fisherman, who wants to report how many fish he catches on a "normal day" would use the median.