The statistical measure that indicates the middle value in a dataset is called the median. To find the median, the data points must first be arranged in ascending order. If there is an odd number of observations, the median is the middle value. If there is an even number, it is calculated by taking the average of the two middle values. The median is particularly useful in descriptive statistics because it is less affected by outliers compared to the mean, making it a better indicator of central tendency in skewed distributions.