Pete lives in a very demographically diverse community. Interestingly incomes are either quite high or quite low with few 'average' incomes in his town. He is conducting a survey regarding opinions about access to medical care. When he considers the variable 'income' in his data, which of the following is he most likely to report?
A) Range
B) Mean
C) Median
D) Mode

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Because incomes in Pete's community are either quite high or quite low, there will be a large number of outliers on either side of the distribution. Therefore, the mean could be heavily influenced by those outliers and may not be a good representation of the typical income in the community. The mode is unlikely to be useful in this case because there is no clear peak in the income distribution. The range alone would not provide information about the typical income or how the income is distributed in the community. On the other hand, the median would provide a useful summary of the income distribution because it is less affected by outliers and would give a reasonable estimate of the typical income in the community.

Pete Lives in a Very Demographically Diverse Community