Statistics: Mode

At times we come across a data which has numbers or values which occurs most number of times. For instance, let us consider the data of math test scores of eight seventh grade students,  76, 84, 96, 84, 90, 78, 69, 84. The number 84 occurs most number of times in this data. This value 84 is called the mode of the given data. So, the Definition of Mode is given as, Mode of a set of data is the value in the set that occurs most often. At times it happens so that there is no number that occurs most often, then we say the data has no mode.

Mode of numbers is the value that occurs most frequently in the data set. Let us find the mode of the following given data. The typing speeds of 10 typists are as listed below (in words per minute). Find the mode of the typing speeds. Typing speeds: 95, 80, 95, 100,78, 90, 95, 88, 96, 98. For convenience, let us list the data in the ascending order, 78, 80, 88, 90, 95, 95, 95, 96, 98, 100. We observe that the value 95 has occurred thrice which is the highest number of times than any other number in the list. So, according to the definition of mode we get 95 as the mode of typing speeds.

Let us learn the steps involved to calculate mode of a given set of data. By the definition Mode, mode is the most frequently occurring value in a data set. To find the mode, first we need to arrange the given set of data in an ascending order. This helps us to identify the mode easily.  The value that occurs most often is identified, that value is our mode.

In a school library, a survey of 15 students was conducted to find out how many books they read during the month of May.  The results found were 8, 5,4,2,1,7,2,4,3,6,4,3,2,4,5. How do we find the mode of the number of books read? We know that mode of numbers is the value in the set of data that occurs most often.  To find the number that occurs most number of times, first let us arrange the numbers in a numerical order.

1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 8

From the above list, we can make out that the numbers 2, 3, 4 and 5 are repeating more than once. Now, we need to identify the number which repeats the most. 4 is the number which occurs four times, highest of all the other numbers. Hence 4 is the mode of number of books read