The median age, on the other hand, is the age at which half of the people fall below that age and half above that age. The result is the average age for the list of people. Add up the values in columns B and C, and then divide the sum in column C by the sum in column B. For instance, in column C you could place a formula such as =A1*B1 and then copy it down the column. The average can be calculated most easily by multiplying the age by the number of people that is each age. It should be pointed out that the median age is going to be different than the average age for a group of people. The MEDIAN function cannot handle such a requirement. In other words, the median needs to be weighted by the number of people that are each age. However, in Jan's case she needs the median value for the ages of the people, not for the ages themselves.
For instance, if you were calculating the median for the ages alone, then MEDIAN would work fine. That function works great if you have a simple list of values. Jan needs a formula that will tell her the median age of this group of people.Īt first blush you might think that you can use the MEDIAN function to calculate the median. In column B she has the number of people in each of those ages.
The ages start at 1 and go through to 100. Jan has a worksheet that has a list of ages in column A.
