Finds the five key values that summarize a dataset’s shape — the same five numbers behind a box plot.
How it works
The minimum, maximum, and median are found directly; Q1 and Q3 are the medians of the lower and upper halves of the sorted data.
What this does not include
This does not include just the three quartiles without the extremes — for that narrower summary, use this site’s quartile calculator instead.
How to use this calculator
- Enter your dataset as comma-separated numbers.
A worked example
Dataset 1 through 9: minimum 1, Q1 2.5, median 5, Q3 7.5, maximum 9.
What the five numbers mean
| Value | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Minimum | Smallest value in the dataset |
| Q1 | Median of the lower half — the 25th percentile |
| Median | The middle value — the 50th percentile |
| Q3 | Median of the upper half — the 75th percentile |
| Maximum | Largest value in the dataset |
Edge cases worth knowing
This always uses the true minimum and maximum, unlike some box-plot variants that instead cap the whiskers at the 1.5×IQR fences and plot true extremes separately as outliers.
A single-value dataset collapses all five numbers into the same value — min, Q1, median, Q3, and max are all identical when there’s only one data point.
Frequently asked questions
Why is the five-number summary useful?
It captures a dataset’s center, spread, and range in just five values, making it a compact way to compare or visualize distributions.
How does this relate to a box plot?
A box plot is a direct visual representation of the five-number summary — the box spans Q1 to Q3, a line marks the median, and whiskers extend to the min and max (or to outlier fences, in some versions).
Does this handle outliers specially?
No — this basic five-number summary always uses the true minimum and maximum; some box plot variants instead cap the whiskers at the 1.5×IQR fences and plot outliers separately.
