In a positively skewed distribution, which statistic tends to be larger?

• A. Median
• B. Mode
• C. Range
• D. Mean

Answer: (D)

In a positively skewed distribution, the long tail extends to higher values, which pulls the mean upward because the mean incorporates every data point and is sensitive to extreme values. The median, as the middle value, remains more resistant to outliers and the influence of those high-end data points, so it sits closer to the bulk of the data. The mode is the most frequent value and in a right-skewed distribution often appears at the lower end. The range reflects spread, not central location, so it doesn’t indicate which measure of center will be larger. Therefore, the mean tends to be larger than the others in a positively skewed distribution.