What is the average value in a data set often referred to as?

The average value in a data set is commonly referred to as the mean. The mean is calculated by adding up all the numbers in a dataset and then dividing that sum by the total number of values in the dataset. It provides a central value that represents the data set as a whole, making it a useful statistic for understanding the overall trend or average of the data.

Other terms in the context of descriptive statistics include the mode, which is the most frequently occurring value in a dataset, and the median, which is the middle value when the data is arranged in ascending or descending order. The range, on the other hand, is a measure of the spread of the data, calculated by subtracting the smallest value from the largest value. Each of these statistical measures serves a different purpose, but when specifically discussing the average, the term "mean" is the most appropriate and widely used.