Question

It was reported that in​ 2004, the mean net worth of families in a certain region was ​$470.2 thousand and the median net worth was ​$92.3 thousand. Which measure of center do you think is more​ appropriate? Explain your answer.

Answer 1

Median.

Explanation:

We have been given that in​ 2004, the mean net worth of families in a certain region was ​$470.2 thousand and the median net worth was ​$92.3 thousand.

We know that mean and median of a symmetric data set is equal.

We also know that when mean of a data set is greater than median, then the data set has a very large valued outlier.

Since mean net wroth of families is approximately 5 times more than median net wroth of families, this means that some of the families has very high net worth as outliers.

Since the net worth of families has very large outliers, therefore, I would prefer median as the appropriate measure of center as median is not affected by outliers.