Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated March 28, 2026)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Excel in Microsoft 365
In the range G2:G26, Fran has a bunch of values. In the range H2:H26 she has weights assigned to each value. The weights are in the range of 0.5 to 2.0, representing 50 percent to 200 percent. Fran wonders what formula she should use to create a weighted average of the values in G2:G26.
An average is easy enough to figure out, using either the AVERAGE function or by summing a range and dividing by the number of items in the range. Things get a bit trickier with weighted averages, however. Consider the following formula:
= SUMPRODUCT(G2:G26*H2:H26)/COUNT(G2:G26)
This seems to fulfill the requirement of summing the weighted values and then dividing by the number of items in the range. This doesn't work, however, because it treats each item in the denominator as equal in importance. They are not equally important, though, and their relative importance must be taken into account.
A weighted average is properly defined as the sum of all the weighted values divided by the sum of all the weights. Thus, the following formula will provide Fran with the correct result:
=SUMPRODUCT(G2:G26,H2:H26)/SUM(H2:H26)
The SUMPRODUCT function sums each of the weighted values—derived by multiplying each value in G2:G26 by its weight in H2:H26—and the SUM function sums all the weights. The division provides the final weighted average.
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