What does it mean when the mean and median are close?

The mean and median are the frequently used central tendencies.

Answer: When the mean and median are close, the data set has a symmetrical distribution.

Let's understand what happens when the mean and median are close.

Explanation:

Mean is the average of the values in the data set. Median is the middlemost value of the data set when values are ordered from smallest to largest.

The mean and the median are close together, then the middle value in the data set, when arranged in ascending order, resembles the balancing point in the data and that occurs at the average.

Then we say that the data set has a symmetrical distribution.

Thus, when data has a symmetrical distribution, we observe that the values of mean and median are approximately close.