The first 9 natural numbers are:

$1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9$

The mean (average) is calculated by dividing the sum of these numbers by the total count of numbers.

1. Sum of the first 9 natural numbers:

$1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 = 45$

2. Mean calculation:

$\text{Mean} = \frac{45}{9} = 5$

So, the mean of the first 9 natural numbers is 5.

Would you like a more detailed explanation or have any further questions?

Here are 5 related questions for further exploration:

1. What is the sum of the first 10 natural numbers?
2. How do you calculate the mean of the first 20 natural numbers?
3. What is the sum of the first 100 natural numbers?
4. What is the mean of the first 50 even numbers?
5. How do you find the mean of a set of odd numbers?

Tip: The sum of the first $n$ natural numbers can be found using the formula $\frac{n(n+1)}{2}$.