AVERAGE

Returns the average of the arguments, ignoring text.

Syntax:

AVERAGE(number1, number2, ... number30)

number1 to number30 are up to 30 numbers or ranges containing numbers.

Example:

AVERAGE(2, 6, 4)

returns 4, the average of the three numbers in the list.

AVERAGE(B1:B3)

where cells B1, B2, B3 contain 1, 3, and apple returns 2, the average of 1 and 3. Text is ignored.

Application:

Calculating Average Monthly Sales

Scenario: A small bakery wants to calculate the average sales for a particular product, their signature sourdough bread, over the last six months to understand its performance and make future production plans.

Data: The sales data for the sourdough bread is recorded in the table below. The values are in dollars.

	Month	Sourdough Bread Sales
	A	B
1	January	$1,500.00
2	February	$1,850.00
3	March	$1,600.00
4	April	$2,100.00
5	May	$1,750.00
6	June	$1,900.00

Application of the AVERAGE function:

The bakery manager can use the AVERAGE function (or formula) to quickly find the mean sales value.

Formula:

$A V ER A GE = \frac{S u m o f a ll v a l u es}{N u mb er o f v a l u es}$

Calculation:

Sum of all values: 1,500+1,850+1,600+2,100+1,750+1,900=10,700
Number of values: There are 6 months of data, so the number of values is 6.
Average: $\frac{10 , 700}{6} = 1, 783.33$

Result: The average monthly sales for the sourdough bread over the last six months is approximately $1,783.33.

Conclusion: This average gives the bakery a useful benchmark. They can use this number to:

Compare a single month's sales to the overall average to see if it was a good or bad month.
Project future sales.
Evaluate the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.

Result:

$1,783.33