An iterative approach to detect outliers may automatically detect outliers in a data set. The iterative approach may include calculating a mean and an average deviation for a list. The iterative approach may further include calculating the deviations of values of a list if the average deviation is not zero. Any values where the calculated deviation of the point or value is greater than the mean may be selected. The selected points may be set as a second list. The second list may be used by the iterative approach until no points are selected for the second list. The previous list is the set of outliers from the data set.