Five Number Summary Calculator

A five number summary is a set of descriptive statistics that gives a quick snapshot of a dataset's distribution. It consists of five values: the minimum, first quartile (Q1), median (Q2), third quartile (Q3), and maximum. Together these five values describe the spread and center of your data.

First, sort your data in ascending order. Identify the minimum and maximum values. Find the median (middle value or average of two middle values). Then split the dataset into a lower half and upper half — the median of the lower half is Q1 and the median of the upper half is Q3. Whether the median itself is included in the halves depends on the quartile method used.

In the exclusive (Tukey) method, when the dataset has an odd number of values, the median is excluded from both the lower and upper halves before computing Q1 and Q3. In the inclusive method, the median is included in both halves. This can produce slightly different Q1 and Q3 values. The exclusive method is more commonly taught in introductory statistics.

The IQR is Q3 minus Q1 and represents the middle 50% of your data. It is a robust measure of spread because it is not affected by extreme outliers. A large IQR indicates high variability in the central portion of the data, while a small IQR suggests the data is tightly clustered around the median.

You can use the 1.5 × IQR rule. Calculate the lower fence as Q1 − 1.5 × IQR and the upper fence as Q3 + 1.5 × IQR. Any data point below the lower fence or above the upper fence is considered a potential outlier. This method is commonly used when constructing box-and-whisker plots.

Type or paste your numbers into the dataset field. You can separate values with commas, spaces, semicolons, or line breaks — the calculator handles all common formats. For example: 3, 7, 8, 5, 12 or 3 7 8 5 12 will both work correctly.

A box plot (also called a box-and-whisker plot) is a visual representation of the five number summary. The box spans from Q1 to Q3, with a line inside at the median. Whiskers extend from the box to the minimum and maximum values (or to the fences in a modified box plot). It gives a fast visual overview of the data's center, spread, and skewness.

Yes. You can paste in datasets with hundreds or thousands of values as long as they are numeric and separated by a valid delimiter. The sorted dataset table below the results shows every value with its position, so you can verify the output for any size dataset.