The average, also known as the arithmetic mean, is a measure of central tendency that is calculated by summing up all the values in a dataset and dividing by the number of values. The formula for calculating the average is:

average = (sum of values) / (number of values)

For example, if you have a dataset of numbers 2, 4, 6, and 8, you would calculate the average as follows:

average = (2 + 4 + 6 + 8) / 4 average = 20 / 4 average = 5

Therefore, the average of the dataset is 5.