When should you use a weighted mean?

*Blog post
2025
Ask Professor Mean
Complex surveys
Descriptive statistics
Author

Steve Simon

Published

December 22, 2025

Dear Professor Mean,

When should you use a weighted mean?

Loyal Reader

Dear Reader,

Weighted means are used in a variety of settings. it’s hard to define all the possible settings, but here are a few common ones.

  1. When a data point represents the contributions of a variable number of patients.

  2. When some data points are more variable/less variable than other data points.

  3. When certain demographic groups are over or under represented.

  4. For complex samping schemes.