In a data set, which term describes the value that occurs most often?

• A. Mean
• B. Median
• C. Range
• D. Mode

Answer: (D)

The value that occurs most often in a data set is called the mode. To find it, look at how frequently each value appears and identify the one with the highest frequency. For example, in the numbers 2, 5, 5, 7, 9, the number 5 shows up twice while the others appear once, so 5 is the mode. If more than one value shares the highest frequency, the data set has multiple modes (is multimodal). If every value occurs with the same frequency, the data set may have no mode (or be described as having multiple modes, depending on convention). This is different from the mean, which is the average of all values; the median, which is the middle value when the data are ordered; and the range, which is the difference between the largest and smallest values.