What Excel function would you use to calculate the average of a range?

The function that is used to calculate the average of a range in Excel is the AVERAGE function. This function sums up all the numbers in the specified range and then divides that sum by the count of the numbers. By using AVERAGE, you can quickly find the central tendency of a set of numerical values, which is a key statistical measure.

The SUM function simply adds all the values in a range together but does not provide the average. The MEDIAN function finds the middle value in a range of numbers and is useful for understanding the central point, especially in distributions with outliers, but it does not calculate the average. The COUNT function, on the other hand, counts the number of cells in a range that contain numbers, but it does not perform any calculations to derive the average itself. Thus, for finding an average specifically, AVERAGE is the appropriate choice.