AVERAGE Function in Excel: Arithmetic Mean of Numbers

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StatisticalLevel: BeginnerAvailable in: Excel 2007+

In this article

1. Syntax
2. Examples
3. Example 1
4. Example 2
5. Power combo
6. Common errors and fixes
7. AVERAGE in practice
8. Where you will use it
9. Worked example
10. Mistakes people make
11. Related functions
12. Continue learning

AVERAGE returns the arithmetic mean: the sum divided by the count of numbers. Empty cells and text are ignored, but zeros are counted.

Syntax

=AVERAGE(number1, [number2], ...)

Argument	What it means
number1	Numbers, cells or ranges to average.

Examples

Example 1

=AVERAGE(C2:C31)

Average daily sales for the month.

Example 2

=ROUND(AVERAGE(C2:C31), 0)

Rounded to a whole number for reports.

Power combo

=AVERAGEIF(C2:C31, ">0")

Average ignoring zero days (holidays), which AVERAGE would count.

Common errors and fixes

You see	Why, and the fix
#DIV/0!	No numbers in the range. Wrap it: =IFERROR(AVERAGE(C2:C31), 0).
Average too low	Zeros are included. Use AVERAGEIF(range, “<>0″) to exclude them.

AVERAGE in practice

Where you will use it

• Average daily sales for the month
• Average marks in a class
• Average order value per customer group

Worked example

Running average of sales; the blank Wednesday is skipped, not treated as zero.

Day	Sales	Formula	Result
Mon	18500	=AVERAGE($B$2:B2)	18500
Tue	22100	=AVERAGE($B$2:B3)	20300
Wed	(blank)	=AVERAGE($B$2:B4)	20300
Thu	19800	=AVERAGE($B$2:B5)	20133.33

Results calculated in Excel.

Mistakes people make

Mistake	What to do instead
Zeros typed for missing days	Leave missing days blank; zeros pull the average down
Averaging percentages from groups of different sizes	Use total / total count (weighted), not the average of averages

Related functions

AVERAGEIFS · MEDIAN · SUM · COUNT

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📎 Practice files for this article

• 📗
  Practice workbook: Statistics basics22 tasks on realistic sales data — type your formula, the Check column turns green when it is right. Answers sheet included.
  ⬇ XLSX · 34 KB

Free to use for learning. Files with macros (.bas) are plain text — import them with Alt+F11 → File → Import File, and always test on a copy.