What does the term 'mean' refer to in statistics?

The term 'mean' in statistics specifically refers to the average of a set of numbers. To calculate the mean, you sum all the values in a data set and then divide that total by the number of values. This measure provides a central value that reflects the overall tendency of the data set.

Understanding the mean as the average is crucial because it serves as a foundational concept in various statistical analyses, helping to summarize data and make comparisons. The other options describe different statistical concepts: the most frequently occurring number refers to the mode, the difference between the highest and lowest values is known as the range, and the sum of all numbers by itself does not imply the average without taking into account the number of values. Hence, the average, or mean, encapsulates the idea of central tendency in a clear and direct manner.