Median

The median is the middle value of a sorted set. This site reports median penalties rather than mean penalties because a handful of very large settlements would otherwise dominate every average on the site.

data and analysis · updated 2026-09-08

See also

• Mean — The mean is the arithmetic average. For enforcement penalties it is a poor summary, because the distribution is extremely right-sk…
• Skew — Skew describes the asymmetry of a distribution. Enforcement penalties are heavily right-skewed: most are modest, and a few are eno…

Terms that refer here

Mean · Quantile · Skew

Back to the full glossary — 261 defined terms.