How to Find the Average of a Numeric Column in SQL Database: Standard SQL PostgreSQL MS SQL Server Oracle MS SQL Server MySQL SQLite Operators: AVG Table of Contents Problem: Example: Solution: Discussion: Problem: You’d like to calculate the average of numbers stored in a column. Example: Our database has a table named sale with data in the following columns: id, city, year, and amount. idcityyearamount 1Los Angeles20172345.50 2Chicago20181345.46 3Annandale2016900.56 4Annandale201723230.22 5Los Angeles201812456.20 6Chicago201789000.40 7Annandale201821005.77 8Chicago20162300.89 Let’s calculate the average sales, regardless of city or year. Solution: SELECT AVG(amount) as avg_amount FROM sale; Here’s the result: avg_amount 19073.125000 Discussion: If you’d like to calculate the average of numeric values stored in a column, you can do so using the AVG() aggregate function; it takes as its argument the name of the column whose average you want to calculate. If you haven’t specified any other columns in the SELECT clause, the average will be calculated for all records in the table. Of course, since it’s an aggregate function, AVG() can also be used with groups. For example, if we’d like to find the average sale per city, we can write this query: SELECT city, AVG(amount) as avg_amount FROM sale GROUP BY city; The average is calculated for each city: cityamount Los Angeles7400.850000 Chicago30882.250000 Annandale15045.516667 Additionally, if the average has to be rounded, you can pass the result of the AVG() function into ROUND(): SELECT city, ROUND(AVG(amount), 2) as avg_amount FROM sale GROUP BY city; Recommended courses: SQL Basics SQL Practice Set Recommended articles: SQL Basics Cheat Sheet The SQL AVG() Function Explained With Examples Using GROUP BY in SQL SQL Aggregate Functions Cheat Sheet Top 9 SQL GROUP BY Interview Questions See also: How to Count Distinct Values in SQL How to Order by Count in SQL? How to Sum Values of a Column in SQL? How to Find Rows with Maximum Value How to Find the Minimum Value of a Column in SQL How to Round Numbers in SQL How to Floor Numbers in SQL Subscribe to our newsletter Join our monthly newsletter to be notified about the latest posts. Email address How Do You Write a SELECT Statement in SQL? What Is a Foreign Key in SQL? Enumerate and Explain All the Basic Elements of an SQL Query