What is the mode and its classifications?

Allcalculator.net’s mode is the measure of central tendency in a series that determines the value occurring most frequently in a given series. Investigators extensively use modes for measuring the taste and preferences of people for a specific brand.

The mode is a preferable measure of central tendency to mean and median. A distribution can either be uni-modal, bi-modal, or multi-modal. 

No modal value – each series observation occurs the same number of times. 

Example: the series 3, 4,5,4,3,5,2,2; there is no modal value as every item occurs twice.

Uni-modal – one observation or item of a series occurs the maximum number of times.

Example: the modal value of the series 2,4,2,5,2,6,8 is two as it occurs for the maximum number of times.

Bi-modal – two observations of a series have the same maximum frequency.

Example: 4, 5,4,6,5,7,8,9, is 4 and 5 where both the items occur two times

Multi-modal – more than two series observations have the same maximum frequency.

Example: 2,3,4,4,5,5,2,1,1,7,6,9,8 are 2, 4,5, and 1, which are repeated more than one time in the series.

What are the merits and demerits of mode?

Merits of mode

Simple and popular – mode is a simple measure of central tendency as it can easily determine the modal value by glancing at the series.

Graphic location – you can locate the mode of a given series through the graph.

No need to know all items – in simple series, the highest frequency value is enough to determine the mode.

Least effect of Marginal Values – the mode is the measure of central tendency that carries the least effect of the marginal values in a series. 

The best representative value – mode is the value of a series that occurs most frequently.

Demerits of mode

Uncertain and Vague – Amongst all measures of central tendency, the mode is vague and uncertain.

Difficult – the frequency of all items in a statistical series is identical, and it is difficult for the investigator to identify the modal value of that series.

Not capable of further Algebraic Treatment – unlike the mean, one cannot perform further algebraic Treatment with mode.

Ignore extreme marginal frequencies – the mode calculation does not consider extreme marginal frequencies.