Mode (statistics)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The mode is the value that appears most often in a set of data values. If is a discrete random variable, the mode is the value (i.e, ) at which the probability mass function takes its maximum value. In other words, it is the value that is most likely to be sampled. Like the statistical
mean There are several kinds of mean in mathematics, especially in statistics. Each mean serves to summarize a given group of data, often to better understand the overall value (magnitude and sign) of a given data set. For a data set, the ''arithme ...
and
median In statistics and probability theory, the median is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a data sample, a population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as "the middle" value. The basic fe ...
, the mode is a way of expressing, in a (usually) single number, important information about a
random variable A random variable (also called random quantity, aleatory variable, or stochastic variable) is a mathematical formalization of a quantity or object which depends on random events. It is a mapping or a function from possible outcomes (e.g., the po ...
or a
population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...
. The numerical value of the mode is the same as that of the mean and median in a
normal distribution In statistics, a normal distribution or Gaussian distribution is a type of continuous probability distribution for a real-valued random variable. The general form of its probability density function is : f(x) = \frac e^ The parameter \mu ...
, and it may be very different in highly
skewed distribution In probability theory and statistics, skewness is a measure of the asymmetry of the probability distribution of a real-valued random variable about its mean. The skewness value can be positive, zero, negative, or undefined. For a unimoda ...
s. The mode is not necessarily unique to a given
discrete distribution In probability theory and statistics, a probability distribution is the mathematical function that gives the probabilities of occurrence of different possible outcomes for an experiment. It is a mathematical description of a random phenomenon ...
, since the probability mass function may take the same maximum value at several points , , etc. The most extreme case occurs in uniform distributions, where all values occur equally frequently. When the probability density function of a
continuous distribution In probability theory and statistics, a probability distribution is the mathematical function that gives the probabilities of occurrence of different possible outcomes for an experiment. It is a mathematical description of a random phenomenon i ...
has multiple
local maxima In mathematical analysis, the maxima and minima (the respective plurals of maximum and minimum) of a function, known collectively as extrema (the plural of extremum), are the largest and smallest value of the function, either within a given ran ...
it is common to refer to all of the local maxima as modes of the distribution. Such a continuous distribution is called multimodal (as opposed to
unimodal In mathematics, unimodality means possessing a unique mode. More generally, unimodality means there is only a single highest value, somehow defined, of some mathematical object. Unimodal probability distribution In statistics, a unimodal p ...
). A mode of a
continuous probability distribution In probability theory and statistics, a probability distribution is the mathematical function that gives the probabilities of occurrence of different possible outcomes for an experiment. It is a mathematical description of a random phenomenon ...
is often considered to be any value at which its
probability density function In probability theory, a probability density function (PDF), or density of a continuous random variable, is a function whose value at any given sample (or point) in the sample space (the set of possible values taken by the random variable) can ...
has a locally maximum value, so any peak is a mode. In
symmetric Symmetry (from grc, συμμετρία "agreement in dimensions, due proportion, arrangement") in everyday language refers to a sense of harmonious and beautiful proportion and balance. In mathematics, "symmetry" has a more precise definiti ...
unimodal In mathematics, unimodality means possessing a unique mode. More generally, unimodality means there is only a single highest value, somehow defined, of some mathematical object. Unimodal probability distribution In statistics, a unimodal p ...
distributions, such as the
normal distribution In statistics, a normal distribution or Gaussian distribution is a type of continuous probability distribution for a real-valued random variable. The general form of its probability density function is : f(x) = \frac e^ The parameter \mu ...
, the mean (if defined), median and mode all coincide. For samples, if it is known that they are drawn from a symmetric unimodal distribution, the sample mean can be used as an estimate of the population mode.


Mode of a sample

The mode of a sample is the element that occurs most often in the collection. For example, the mode of the sample , 3, 6, 6, 6, 6, 7, 7, 12, 12, 17is 6. Given the list of data , 1, 2, 4, 4its mode is not unique. A dataset, in such a case, is said to be
bimodal In statistics, a multimodal distribution is a probability distribution with more than one mode. These appear as distinct peaks (local maxima) in the probability density function, as shown in Figures 1 and 2. Categorical, continuous, and d ...
, while a set with more than two modes may be described as multimodal. For a sample from a continuous distribution, such as .935..., 1.211..., 2.430..., 3.668..., 3.874... the concept is unusable in its raw form, since no two values will be exactly the same, so each value will occur precisely once. In order to estimate the mode of the underlying distribution, the usual practice is to discretize the data by assigning frequency values to intervals of equal distance, as for making a histogram, effectively replacing the values by the midpoints of the intervals they are assigned to. The mode is then the value where the histogram reaches its peak. For small or middle-sized samples the outcome of this procedure is sensitive to the choice of interval width if chosen too narrow or too wide; typically one should have a sizable fraction of the data concentrated in a relatively small number of intervals (5 to 10), while the fraction of the data falling outside these intervals is also sizable. An alternate approach is
kernel density estimation In statistics, kernel density estimation (KDE) is the application of kernel smoothing for probability density estimation, i.e., a non-parametric method to estimate the probability density function of a random variable based on ''kernels'' as w ...
, which essentially blurs point samples to produce a continuous estimate of the probability density function which can provide an estimate of the mode. The following
MATLAB MATLAB (an abbreviation of "MATrix LABoratory") is a proprietary multi-paradigm programming language and numeric computing environment developed by MathWorks. MATLAB allows matrix manipulations, plotting of functions and data, implementation ...
(or
Octave In music, an octave ( la, octavus: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is the interval between one musical pitch and another with double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been refer ...
) code example computes the mode of a sample: X = sort(x); % x is a column vector dataset indices = find(diff(
; realmax The semicolon or semi-colon is a symbol commonly used as orthography, orthographic punctuation. In the English language, a semicolon is most commonly used to link (in a single sentence) two independent clauses that are closely related in thou ...
> 0); % indices where repeated values change odeL,i= max (diff( ; indices); % longest persistence length of repeated values mode = X(indices(i));
The algorithm requires as a first step to sort the sample in ascending order. It then computes the discrete derivative of the sorted list, and finds the indices where this derivative is positive. Next it computes the discrete derivative of this set of indices, locating the maximum of this derivative of indices, and finally evaluates the sorted sample at the point where that maximum occurs, which corresponds to the last member of the stretch of repeated values.


Comparison of mean, median and mode


Use

Unlike mean and median, the concept of mode also makes sense for "
nominal data Level of measurement or scale of measure is a classification that describes the nature of information within the values assigned to variables. Psychologist Stanley Smith Stevens developed the best-known classification with four levels, or scal ...
" (i.e., not consisting of numerical values in the case of mean, or even of ordered values in the case of median). For example, taking a sample of
Korean family name This is a list of Korean surnames, in Hangul alphabetical order. Note: (S) denotes South Korea. (N) denotes North Korea. The most common Korean family name (particularly in South Korea) is Kim, followed by Lee and Park. These three family na ...
s, one might find that "
Kim Kim or KIM may refer to: Names * Kim (given name) * Kim (surname) ** Kim (Korean surname) *** Kim family (disambiguation), several dynasties **** Kim family (North Korea), the rulers of North Korea since Kim Il-sung in 1948 ** Kim, Vietnamese f ...
" occurs more often than any other name. Then "Kim" would be the mode of the sample. In any voting system where a plurality determines victory, a single modal value determines the victor, while a multi-modal outcome would require some tie-breaking procedure to take place. Unlike median, the concept of mode makes sense for any random variable assuming values from a
vector space In mathematics and physics, a vector space (also called a linear space) is a set whose elements, often called ''vectors'', may be added together and multiplied ("scaled") by numbers called '' scalars''. Scalars are often real numbers, but can ...
, including the
real number In mathematics, a real number is a number that can be used to measure a ''continuous'' one-dimensional quantity such as a distance, duration or temperature. Here, ''continuous'' means that values can have arbitrarily small variations. Every real ...
s (a one-
dimension In physics and mathematics, the dimension of a Space (mathematics), mathematical space (or object) is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any Point (geometry), point within it. Thus, a Line (geometry), lin ...
al vector space) and the
integer An integer is the number zero (), a positive natural number (, , , etc.) or a negative integer with a minus sign (−1, −2, −3, etc.). The negative numbers are the additive inverses of the corresponding positive numbers. In the language ...
s (which can be considered embedded in the reals). For example, a distribution of points in the
plane Plane(s) most often refers to: * Aero- or airplane, a powered, fixed-wing aircraft * Plane (geometry), a flat, 2-dimensional surface Plane or planes may also refer to: Biology * Plane (tree) or ''Platanus'', wetland native plant * ''Planes' ...
will typically have a mean and a mode, but the concept of median does not apply. The median makes sense when there is a
linear order In mathematics, a total or linear order is a partial order in which any two elements are comparable. That is, a total order is a binary relation \leq on some set X, which satisfies the following for all a, b and c in X: # a \leq a ( reflexive ...
on the possible values. Generalizations of the concept of median to higher-dimensional spaces are the
geometric median In geometry, the geometric median of a discrete set of sample points in a Euclidean space is the point minimizing the sum of distances to the sample points. This generalizes the median, which has the property of minimizing the sum of distances ...
and the centerpoint.


Uniqueness and definedness

For some probability distributions, the expected value may be infinite or undefined, but if defined, it is unique. The mean of a (finite) sample is always defined. The median is the value such that the fractions not exceeding it and not falling below it are each at least 1/2. It is not necessarily unique, but never infinite or totally undefined. For a data sample it is the "halfway" value when the list of values is ordered in increasing value, where usually for a list of even length the numerical average is taken of the two values closest to "halfway". Finally, as said before, the mode is not necessarily unique. Certain
pathological Pathology is the study of the causes and effects of disease or injury. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in th ...
distributions (for example, the
Cantor distribution The Cantor distribution is the probability distribution whose cumulative distribution function is the Cantor function. This distribution has neither a probability density function nor a probability mass function, since although its cumulativ ...
) have no defined mode at all. For a finite data sample, the mode is one (or more) of the values in the sample.


Properties

Assuming definedness, and for simplicity uniqueness, the following are some of the most interesting properties. * All three measures have the following property: If the random variable (or each value from the sample) is subjected to the linear or
affine transformation In Euclidean geometry, an affine transformation or affinity (from the Latin, ''affinis'', "connected with") is a geometric transformation that preserves lines and parallelism, but not necessarily Euclidean distances and angles. More generally, ...
, which replaces by , so are the mean, median and mode. * Except for extremely small samples, the mode is insensitive to "
outliers In statistics, an outlier is a data point that differs significantly from other observations. An outlier may be due to a variability in the measurement, an indication of novel data, or it may be the result of experimental error; the latter are ...
" (such as occasional, rare, false experimental readings). The median is also very robust in the presence of outliers, while the mean is rather sensitive. * In continuous
unimodal distribution In mathematics, unimodality means possessing a unique mode. More generally, unimodality means there is only a single highest value, somehow defined, of some mathematical object. Unimodal probability distribution In statistics, a unimodal ...
s the median often lies between the mean and the mode, about one third of the way going from mean to mode. In a formula, median ≈ (2 × mean + mode)/3. This rule, due to Karl Pearson, often applies to slightly non-symmetric distributions that resemble a normal distribution, but it is not always true and in general the three statistics can appear in any order. * For unimodal distributions, the mode is within standard deviations of the mean, and the root mean square deviation about the mode is between the standard deviation and twice the standard deviation.


Example for a skewed distribution

An example of a
skewed In probability theory and statistics, skewness is a measure of the asymmetry of the probability distribution of a real-valued random variable about its mean. The skewness value can be positive, zero, negative, or undefined. For a unimoda ...
distribution is personal wealth: Few people are very rich, but among those some are extremely rich. However, many are rather poor. A well-known class of distributions that can be arbitrarily skewed is given by the
log-normal distribution In probability theory, a log-normal (or lognormal) distribution is a continuous probability distribution of a random variable whose logarithm is normally distributed. Thus, if the random variable is log-normally distributed, then has a norma ...
. It is obtained by transforming a random variable having a normal distribution into random variable . Then the logarithm of random variable is normally distributed, hence the name. Taking the mean μ of to be 0, the median of will be 1, independent of the
standard deviation In statistics, the standard deviation is a measure of the amount of variation or dispersion of a set of values. A low standard deviation indicates that the values tend to be close to the mean (also called the expected value) of the set, while ...
σ of . This is so because has a symmetric distribution, so its median is also 0. The transformation from to is monotonic, and so we find the median for . When has standard deviation σ = 0.25, the distribution of is weakly skewed. Using formulas for the
log-normal distribution In probability theory, a log-normal (or lognormal) distribution is a continuous probability distribution of a random variable whose logarithm is normally distributed. Thus, if the random variable is log-normally distributed, then has a norma ...
, we find: :\begin \text & = e^ & = e^ & \approx 1.032 \\ \text & = e^ & = e^ & \approx 0.939 \\ \text & = e^\mu & = e^0 & = 1 \end Indeed, the median is about one third on the way from mean to mode. When has a larger standard deviation, , the distribution of is strongly skewed. Now :\begin \text & = e^ & = e^ & \approx 1.649 \\ \text & = e^ & = e^ & \approx 0.368 \\ \text & = e^\mu & = e^0 & = 1 \end Here, Pearson's rule of thumb fails.


Van Zwet condition

Van Zwet derived an inequality which provides sufficient conditions for this inequality to hold. The inequality :Mode ≤ Median ≤ Mean holds if :F( Median - ) + F( Median + ) ≥ 1 for all where F() is the
cumulative distribution function In probability theory and statistics, the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of a real-valued random variable X, or just distribution function of X, evaluated at x, is the probability that X will take a value less than or equal to x. Ev ...
of the distribution.


Unimodal distributions

It can be shown for a unimodal distribution that the median \tilde and the mean \bar lie within (3/5)1/2 ≈ 0.7746 standard deviations of each other. In symbols, : \frac \le (3/5)^ where , \cdot, is the absolute value. A similar relation holds between the median and the mode: they lie within 31/2 ≈ 1.732 standard deviations of each other: : \frac \le 3^.


History

The term mode originates with Karl Pearson in 1895. Pearson uses the term ''mode'' interchangeably with ''maximum-ordinate''. In a footnote he says, "I have found it convenient to use the term ''mode'' for the abscissa corresponding to the ordinate of maximum frequency."


See also

*
Arg max In mathematics, the arguments of the maxima (abbreviated arg max or argmax) are the points, or elements, of the domain of some function at which the function values are maximized.For clarity, we refer to the input (''x'') as ''points'' and t ...
*
Central tendency In statistics, a central tendency (or measure of central tendency) is a central or typical value for a probability distribution.Weisberg H.F (1992) ''Central Tendency and Variability'', Sage University Paper Series on Quantitative Applications ...
*
Descriptive statistics A descriptive statistic (in the count noun sense) is a summary statistic that quantitatively describes or summarizes features from a collection of information, while descriptive statistics (in the mass noun sense) is the process of using and an ...
*
Moment (mathematics) In mathematics, the moments of a function are certain quantitative measures related to the shape of the function's graph. If the function represents mass density, then the zeroth moment is the total mass, the first moment (normalized by total mas ...
*
Summary statistics In descriptive statistics, summary statistics are used to summarize a set of observations, in order to communicate the largest amount of information as simply as possible. Statisticians commonly try to describe the observations in * a measure of ...
*
Unimodal function In mathematics, unimodality means possessing a unique mode. More generally, unimodality means there is only a single highest value, somehow defined, of some mathematical object. Unimodal probability distribution In statistics, a unimodal pr ...


References


External links

*
A Guide to Understanding & Calculating the Mode
* * Mean, Median and Mode short beginner video fro
Khan Academy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mode (Statistics) Means Summary statistics Articles with example MATLAB/Octave code