Finding the Mean With AVERAGE

An average (also called the mean) tells you the typical value in a group of numbers. You add the numbers up and divide by how many there are.

For example, test scores of 80, 90, and 100 add up to 270. Divide by 3 and the average is 90.

You could do this by hand, but the AVERAGE function does both steps for you in one short formula.

AVERAGE follows the same shape as SUM:

=AVERAGE(range)

Point it at a range of cells and it returns the mean of the numbers inside. It quietly handles the adding and the dividing.

Just like SUM, it skips text and blank cells, so only real numbers are counted.