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Finding the Mode

(KS2, Year 5)

We can find the mode of a set of numbers. Imagine a teacher wanted to find the class's average test score in mathematics.

mode example 1

How to Find the Mode

The mode is found by counting how often each number appears in a set and selecting the one that appears most often.

What is the mode of the test scores below? mode test scores example

List the numbers in numerical order (going from the smallest to the largest number).

6 7 7 9 10

Count how often each number appears.

Find the number that appears most often.

mode example 1 step 3

The mode of the test scores is 7.

mode 7

Sometimes there is more than one mode in a set of numbers.

What is the mode of the test scores below?

List the numbers in numerical order (going from the smallest to the largest number).

6 7 7 9 10 10

Count how often each number appears.

Find the number that appears most often.

mode example 2 step 3

The modes of the test scores are 7 and 10.

mode 7 10

The slider below gives another example of finding the mode.

Remember, the mode is the number that appears most!

Unlike the mean and median, there isn't always a mode.

If all numbers appear equally as often, there is no mode.

mode none

A set of data with one mode is unimodal:

In the set above, 1 occurs most often, more than any other number. There is only one mode.
A set of data with two modes is bimodal:

In the set above, 1 and 2 both occur the same number of times, which is more than any other number. There are two modes.
A set of data with more than one modes is multimodal:

In the set above, 1, 2 and 3 all occur the same number of times, which is more than any other number.