How is the mode defined in statistics?

The mode is defined as the value that occurs with the greatest frequency within a dataset. This means that when you analyze a collection of data points, the mode identifies the specific number or category that appears most frequently among those values. For example, in the dataset {1, 2, 2, 3, 4}, the number 2 is the mode because it appears more often than the other numbers.

Unlike the average or mean, which represents a central tendency by taking the sum of all values and dividing by the count, the mode purely focuses on frequency of occurrence. Similarly, the median, which is the middle value in an ordered dataset, does not take frequency into account but rather emphasizes the positional aspect of the data. The mode can be particularly useful in identifying common trends or characteristics in categorical data where the average may not provide much insight.