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calculate mean from histogram

vanloon | PRO | 05/25/24 07:05:09 PM UTC | 0 ⭐ | 9945 👁️ | Never ⏰ | [mean, histogram]
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# Code to illustrate how to calculate mean of a histogram (possibly 
# with uneven class-widths).
 
# Example data: 
# As input we use a frequency distribution of age groups, stored in two variables:
#   nr = the counts per age group
#   agegrp = the labels for each age group
 
nr <- c(8, 11, 26, 20, 13, 5)
agegrp <- c('<1','1-2','3-5','6-11','12-17','18+')
 
# Based on the variable agegrp, the mean age of each age-group is 
# determined. The result is stored in the variable midgrp.
# The mean age is just the middle value of the range - here done by
# 'hand-work' (no programming). 
# For the highest interval, the assumption was made that it ranges up to 20.
midgrp <- c(0.5, 1.5, 4, 8.5, 14.5, 19) 
 
# Now the estimated mean age for this frequency distribution
# is calculated by multiplying the mean per interval with the reltive frequency
# per interval and summing these values.
relfreq <- nr/sum(nr)
( mean <- sum(midgrp * relfreq) )
 
 

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