"The 25 best neighborhoods for young people" - Shadyside #15

[_Buster]

I think they got numbers from like a decade ago. The other cities were way too low as well.

[phatty5011]

Typical Yahoo article. They probably do this so much too, just pull old articles from a few years back and reuse them.

[ferraris]

Originally Posted by doo dah

Median is not average.

Average can mean mean, median, or mode.

[LIRefugee]

Originally Posted by ferraris

Average can mean mean, median, or mode.

Average means mean and not median or mode.

[ferraris]

Originally Posted by LIRefugee

Average means mean and not median or mode.

Hmm, I actually checked the wikipedia article before posting that.

However, the word "average" can be used to refer to the median, the mode, or some other central or typical value

The first definition from Webster agrees, too. It would be best if articles just said mean/median/mode when applicable to avoid any confusion.

Full Definition of AVERAGE

1
a : a single value (as a mean, mode, or median) that summarizes or represents the general significance of a set of unequal values

[LIRefugee]

Interesting, though not surprising, that there are differing opinions as to what "average" means. I have never seen the word "average" used to connote anything other than "mean" nor have I ever understood the possibility of "average" meaning something other than mean. In fact, I would consider that a dilution of the definition of the word to the point where it isn't particularly useful since mean, median, and mode are very different values.

What does average mean, on average? I'd say it means "mean".

[stpickrell]

Originally Posted by LIRefugee

Average means mean and not median or mode.

I think colloquially it ends up meaning all three :P

But mathematically average = mean.

If I got this wrong, I suspect my math degree could get retraoactively revoked.