"Average" usually means one of two things. The mean is what you get when you add everything up and divide by how many there are. The median is the middle value when everything is lined up from smallest to largest: half are below it and half above.
When values are spread evenly, the two are close. When a few values are very large, they pull the mean up and leave the median where it is. Pay is the classic case.
A made-up office
Imagine an office of nine people. Eight earn between €30,000 and €50,000. The founder earns €600,000.
| Person | Yearly pay |
|---|---|
| 1 to 4 | €30,000, €34,000, €38,000, €40,000 |
| 5 (the middle one) | €42,000 |
| 6 to 8 | €44,000, €47,000, €50,000 |
| 9 (founder) | €600,000 |
The median is €42,000: the fifth of nine people. The mean is about €102,800, because the founder's pay is shared out across everyone in the sum. Eight of the nine people earn less than half the "average".
These numbers are invented to show the idea. They are not real pay figures.
Nobody in that office would say a typical colleague earns €100,000. The median describes the typical person far better. Real pay works the same way, only with millions of people: a relatively small number of very high earners lift the mean above what most people take home.
So is the mean useless?
No. The mean answers a different question: if all the money were shared out equally, how much would each person get? That is the right question for some purposes, such as working out total spending or tax receipts. It is the wrong one for "am I typical?".
The trouble is that headlines rarely say which one they mean. When you see "average earnings", check whether it is a mean or a median. Official statistics offices always say which they have published.
Why one number is never enough
Even the median hides a lot. Two towns could have the same median income, one where nearly everyone earns close to it and one with deep poverty alongside great wealth. To know where you stand, you need to know how people are spread out, not just where the middle is.
That is why AboutAverage only places you in a group when the source publishes the spread: percentiles (the pay below which 10%, 20%, 30% … of people fall) or counts in bands (how many people work 30 to 39 hours a week, and so on). We never estimate your position from an average alone, because it cannot be done honestly.
Three things to check next time
- Mean or median? If it is a mean of something lopsided like income, wealth or house prices, the typical person is probably below it.
- Average of whom? All adults, all employees, full-time workers only? Each gives a different answer.
- Which year? Pay figures are often a year or two old by the time they are published.