What is Mode in Math?
In math, the mode highlights what is most popular in a set of data, and is often used in everyday scenarios.
Author
Katie Wickliff
Published:
Nov 2025
Key takeaways
- • Mode is a measure of center, or a “typical” value in a set of data
- • Students begin working with the mode in late elementary or early middle school
- • Learning mode helps students learn to recognize patterns in data sets
Starting in the 3rd or 4th grade, students begin learning various ways to collect, organize, and record data. This concept is often introduced through classroom surveys on fun topics like favorite snacks, subjects, or sports teams. In these early years, students notice patterns, apply categories and labels, and begin to understand how data is used to answer questions about the world around them.
After this introduction, students in 6th grade begin learning to describe data mathematically. Often, the next concepts they study are the mean, median, and mode, which are all measures of center in a set of numerical data. In other words, they use a single number to describe a “typical” value within the data.
In this article, we’ll focus on mode and talk about the definition of mode in math and how to find it in a set of data. We’ll also share some examples of the types of mode problems students might see in the classroom. Additionally, we provide several fun practice problems for your child to get comfortable finding the mode. Let’s get started!
What is the Mode?
The mode is the value (or number) that appears the most often in a set of data. There can be:
- One mode: only one number in the data set appears most often. For example, in the data set 1, 1, 4, 7, 7, 7, 9, 12 the number 7 appears the most often.
- Multiple modes: more than one value appears most often. For example, in the data set
2, 2, 5, 5, 5, 7, 8, 8, 8, 9, 15
Both the numbers 5 and 8 appear the same number of times.
- No mode: no one value appears most often. For example, in the data set
3, 6, 9, 12, 15 no number appears more than another.
Students can easily use their understanding of mode in real world scenarios. For example, if a student can determine the most popular pizza topping among her friends, she might choose to serve that type of pizza at her next sleepover. When students connect the concepts they’re learning to the world around them, they are more engaged and motivated to learn the material.
Table of contents
How to Find the Mode
To find the mode, it is easiest to rewrite the numbers in chronological order, then count the number that appears most often. That number (or numbers) is the mode. For example, if a data set looks like this:
6, 1, 5, 9, 12, 1, 3
Students should rewrite it to look like this:
1, 1, 3, 5, 6, 9, 12
Now, it’s easier to determine that the number 1 occurs most often.
Median Math Examples
Let’s work through a few examples similar to what your student may see in the classroom.
Example 1: Jonah asked 8 friends how many pets they have.
Find the mode of the data:
0, 3, 1, 4, 0, 1, 2, 1
He put the data in order, like this:
0, 0, 1, 1,1, 2, 3, 4
Jonah can see that the value 1 occurs the most often, so the mode is 1 pet
Example 2: Elizabeth conducted a classroom survey about favorite sports. She organized her data set into a bar graph:
Elizabeth put the data in order, like this:
- Gymnastics- 1 student
- Golf- 1 student
- Basketball- 3 students
- Hockey- 3 students
- Football- 5 students
- Baseball- 6 students
Elizabeth can see that the values 1 and 3 each occur twice, so there are multiple modes in this data set. The numerical modes are: 1 and 3, and the categorical modes are Gymnastics, Golf, Basketball, and Hockey
Example 3: Mr. Lynd recorded how many pages his students read for homework on Tuesday.
His data looked like this:
10, 11, 15, 25, 9, 8, 4, 18, 7
He organized his data in chronological order:
4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15, 18, 25
Each number appears only once, so there is no mode in this data set.
Mode Practice Problems
These practice problems will help your student become a master of mode in no time! If you’re looking for more ways to support your child’s math development, check out Dreambox, an engaging program that helps strengthen skills and build confidence.
Data: 13, 14, 12, 10, 11, 12, 14, 12
What is the mode of the data set?
Data: Comedy, Action, Comedy, Horror, Romance, Adventure, Mystery
What is the mode of the data set?
Data: 4, 7, 2, 10, 7, 3, 1, 4
What is the mode of the data set?
Data: 12, 23, 4, 7, 14, 8, 6, 2, 0
What is the mode of the data set?
What is the mode of the data set?
About the Author
Katie Wickliff
Katie holds a master’s degree in Education, has over 15 years of education experience as a primary classroom teacher, and is Orton-Gillingham certified tutor. Most importantly, Katie is the mother of two primary school students, ages 8 and 11. She is passionate about maths education and firmly believes that the right tools and support will help every student reach their full potential.