Median is the value of the middle item of a series arranged in ascending or descending order of magnitude. Thus if there are 9 items in a series arranged in ascending or descending order of magnitude median will be the value of the 5th item. This item would divide the series in two equal parts—one part containing values less than -the median value and the other part containing values more than the median value. If however there are even number of items in a series then there is no central item dividing the series in two equal parts. For example if there are 10 items in a series the median value would be between the values of 5th and 6th items. It would thus be the arithmetic average of the values of 5th and 6th items or it would be equal to value of 5th item plus the value of 6th item divided by two.

Ex: Median of the following data:

25, 30,34,42,48

Here there are 5 items in the dataset so median will be the value of the middle number (3rd position number) =34.

Median does not take into account other data values like average. It only gives positional midpoint of the series.

Secrist has given the following definition of Median "Median of a series is the value of the item actual or estimated when a series is arranged in order of magnitude which divides the distribution into two parts**. L.R. Connor defines median as "that value of the variable which divides the group into two equal parts, one part comprising all values greater, and the other, all values less than median."