Mean

Mean (also known as the arithmetic mean or simple average) is a measure of the central tendency of the sample data. It is defined as the sum of the values (divided by the number of values (n):

The value reported here is the sample mean. This is a good measure of the average value of the population when the data is normally distributed.

Geological data is rarely normally distributed and so the mean should be treated with considerable caution, particularly if the data is highly skewed.