IQR fence (1.5 IQR rule)
An IQR fence is a boundary set 1.5 IQRs below the first quartile or above the third quartile, and values outside the fences count as outliers.
The fences mark how far the data can reasonably reach before a value is worth flagging. You place the lower fence at and the upper fence at , finding the quartiles by the median-excluded (TI-84) rule this site uses. If and , then the IQR is 8, , and the fences sit at and , so a value of 35 is an outlier by this rule while 31 is not. The fences are a convention for identifying points that deserve a second look, not proof that anything is wrong with those points.
Where this comes up
More describing data terms, or browse the full statistics glossary.