To calculate a weighted mean in R, you can use the built-in weighted.mean() function, which uses the following syntax:
weighted.mean(x, w)
where:
- x: A vector of raw data values
- w: A vector of weights
This tutorial shows several examples of how to use this function in practice.
Example 1: Weighted Mean of a Vector
The following code shows how to calculated the weighted mean for a given vector of data:
#define vector of data values data #define vector of weights weights #calculate weighted mean weighted.mean(x=data, w=weights) [1] 5.8
The weighted mean turns out to be 5.8.
Example 2: Weighted Mean of a Column in a Data Frame
The following code shows how to calculated the weighted mean for a column in a data frame, using another column as the weights:
#create data frame df #calculate weighted mean weighted.mean(x=df$values, w=df$weights) [1] 5.8
The weighted mean turns out to be 5.8.
Note that you can also calculate the weighted mean for a column in a data frame by using a separate vector as the weights:
#create data frame df #define vector of weights weights #calculate weighted mean weighted.mean(x=df$values, w=weights) [1] 5.8
Once again the weighted mean turns out to be 5.8.
When to Use a Weighted Mean
In practice, a weighted mean is used when we consider some data values to be more important than others and so we want those more important values to contribute more to the final mean.
Additional Resources
How to Calculate the Mean of Multiple Columns in R
How to Calculate the Mean by Group in R
How to Sum Specific Columns in R