Central tendency

[khitchcock82]

I'm trying to figure out which is the best form of central tendency to use if the median is 9.00 and the mean is 9.43. I figured out that the standard deviation is 5.09 and N equals 163. I'm unsure of how to exactly find out whether the median or the mean is the most appropriate.

 

[royhaas]

There's no such thing as "most appropriate". However, the mean and median are close so you can use either one. Your data has a slight negative skew, but the median is barely a little more than one standard error from the mean. There is no real evidence here that the median should be used instead of the mean.

 

[khitchcock82]

I should have clarified appropriate. I need to use the best form of central tendency that helps to prove that N (number of vacant houses) causes higher levels of crime. I think its asking me to find which central tendency method is most persuasive to proving that.