What is the lowest acceptable R-squared value?
In finance, an R-squared above 0.7 would generally be seen as showing a high level of correlation, whereas a measure below 0.4 would show a low correlation.
Value of < 0.3 is weak , Value between 0.3 and 0.5 is moderate and Value > 0.7 means strong effect on the dependent variable.
An R2 of 1.0 indicates that the data perfectly fit the linear model. Any R2 value less than 1.0 indicates that at least some variability in the data cannot be accounted for by the model (e.g., an R2 of 0.5 indicates that 50% of the variability in the outcome data cannot be explained by the model).
Therefore, a low R-square of at least 0.1 (or 10 percent) is acceptable on the condition that some or most of the predictors or explanatory variables are statistically significant. If this condition is not met, the low R-square model cannot be accepted.
R² is the coefficient of determination, a measure of how well is the data explained by the fitted model, R² is the square of the coefficient of correlation, R, R is a quantity that ranges from 0 to 1.
R^2 of 0.2 is actually quite high for real-world data. It means that a full 20% of the variation of one variable is completely explained by the other. It's a big deal to be able to account for a fifth of what you're examining. R-squared isn't what makes it significant.
For example, a correlation coefficient of 0.2 is considered to be negligible correlation while a correlation coefficient of 0.3 is considered as low positive correlation (Table 1), so it would be important to use the most appropriate one.
A statistically significant R2 at 0.02 simply means that you had sufficient data to claim that R2 is not 0. But it is close to 0. So there is very little of a relationship between the independent variables and dependent variable.
Generally, an R-Squared above 0.6 makes a model worth your attention, though there are other things to consider: Any field that attempts to predict human behaviour, such as psychology, typically has R-squared values lower than 0.5.
R-squared is a measure of how closely the data in a regression line fit the data in the sample. The closer the r-squared value is to 1, the better the fit. An r-squared value of 0 indicates that the regression line does not fit the data at all, while an r-squared value of 1 indicates a perfect fit.
What does an R-squared value of 0.35 mean?
An R2 of 0.35, for example, indicates that 35 percent of the variation in the outcome has been explained just by predicting the outcome using the covariates included in the model.
Key properties of R-squared
Finally, a value of 0.5 means that half of the variance in the outcome variable is explained by the model. Sometimes the R² is presented as a percentage (e.g., 50%).

The answer is: Yes, it is good enough. Humans are complex creatures, and R-Squares of 0.15 and above are very hard to find in People Analytics (and Social Sciences in general). We at Pirical run regressions on People Analytics data all the time, and it's rare we see an R-Squared higher than 0.15.
In general, the higher the R-squared, the better the model fits your data.
R-squared does not indicate if a regression model provides an adequate fit to your data. A good model can have a low R2 value. On the other hand, a biased model can have a high R2 value!
R-squared and prediction intervals represent variability. You interpret the coefficients for significant variables the same way regardless of the R-squared value. Low R-squared values can warn of imprecise predictions.
R-Squared (R² or the coefficient of determination) is a statistical measure in a regression model that determines the proportion of variance in the dependent variable that can be explained by the independent variable. In other words, r-squared shows how well the data fit the regression model (the goodness of fit).
The possible range of values for the correlation coefficient is -1.0 to 1.0. In other words, the values cannot exceed 1.0 or be less than -1.0. A correlation of -1.0 indicates a perfect negative correlation, and a correlation of 1.0 indicates a perfect positive correlation.
The value for R-squared can range from 0 to 1. A value of 0 indicates that the response variable cannot be explained by the predictor variable at all. A value of 1 indicates that the response variable can be perfectly explained without error by the predictor variable.
Value of r | Strength of relationship |
---|---|
-1.0 to -0.5 or 1.0 to 0.5 | Strong |
-0.5 to -0.3 or 0.3 to 0.5 | Moderate |
-0.3 to -0.1 or 0.1 to 0.3 | Weak |
-0.1 to 0.1 | None or very weak |
What is an acceptable R-Value range?
Depending on where you live and the part of your home you're insulating (walls, crawlspace, attic, etc.), you'll need a different R-Value. Typical recommendations for exterior walls are R-13 to R-23, while R-30, R-38 and R-49 are common for ceilings and attic spaces.
The magnitude of the correlation coefficient indicates the strength of the association. For example, a correlation of r = 0.9 suggests a strong, positive association between two variables, whereas a correlation of r = -0.2 suggest a weak, negative association.
R-square(R²) is also known as the coefficient of determination, It is the proportion of variation in Y explained by the independent variables X. It is the measure of goodness of fit of the model. If R² is 0.8 it means 80% of the variation in the output can be explained by the input variable.
A rule of thumb for small values of R-squared: If R-squared is small (say 25% or less), then the fraction by which the standard deviation of the errors is less than the standard deviation of the dependent variable is approximately one-half of R-squared, as shown in the table above.
So R-squared gives the degree of variability in the target variable that is explained by the model or the independent variables. If this value is 0.7, then it means that the independent variables explain 70% of the variation in the target variable. R-squared value always lies between 0 and 1.
R-squared is defined as the percentage of the response variable variation that is explained by the predictors in the model collectively. So, an R-squared of 0.75 means that the predictors explain about 75% of the variation in our response variable.
An R2=1 indicates perfect fit. That is, you've explained all of the variance that there is to explain. In ordinary least squares (OLS) regression (the most typical type), your coefficients are already optimized to maximize the degree of model fit (R2) for your variables and all linear transforms of your variables.
In finance, an R-squared above 0.7 would generally be seen as showing a high level of correlation, whereas a measure below 0.4 would show a low correlation. This is not a hard rule, however, and will depend on the specific analysis.
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Describing Correlation Coefficients.
Correlation Coefficient (r) | Description (Rough Guideline ) |
---|---|
+0.6 to 0.8 | Strong + association |
+0.4 to 0.6 | Moderate + association |
+0.2 to 0.4 | Weak + association |
0.0 to +0.2 | Very weak + or no association |
Out-of-sample (OOS) R2 is a good metric to apply to test whether your predictive relationship has out-of-sample predictability. Checking this for the version of the proximity variable model which is publically documented, I find OOS R2 of 0.63 for forecasts of daily high prices.
What does an r2 value of 0.09 mean?
2 - Now you square r. So, 0.3 squared = 0.09, which means each variable accounts for 9% of the other's variance. 0.5 squared = 0.25, or, each variable accounts for 25% of the other's variance.
R-squared is a measure of how closely the data in a regression line fit the data in the sample. The closer the r-squared value is to 1, the better the fit. An r-squared value of 0 indicates that the regression line does not fit the data at all, while an r-squared value of 1 indicates a perfect fit.
1. low R-square and low p-value (p-value <= 0.05) It means that your model doesn't explain much of variation of the data but it is significant (better than not having a model)
Generally, an R-Squared above 0.6 makes a model worth your attention, though there are other things to consider: Any field that attempts to predict human behaviour, such as psychology, typically has R-squared values lower than 0.5.
R-squared and prediction intervals represent variability. You interpret the coefficients for significant variables the same way regardless of the R-squared value. Low R-squared values can warn of imprecise predictions.
In general, the higher the R-squared, the better the model fits your data.
The low R-squared graph shows that even noisy, high-variability data can have a significant trend. The trend indicates that the predictor variable still provides information about the response even though data points fall further from the regression line.
A statistically significant R2 at 0.02 simply means that you had sufficient data to claim that R2 is not 0. But it is close to 0. So there is very little of a relationship between the independent variables and dependent variable.
For example, in scientific studies, the R-squared may need to be above 0.95 for a regression model to be considered reliable. In other domains, an R-squared of just 0.3 may be sufficient if there is extreme variability in the dataset.
The relationship between two variables is generally considered strong when their r value is larger than 0.7. The correlation r measures the strength of the linear relationship between two quantitative variables. Pearson r: r is always a number between -1 and 1.
Is an R value of 0.8 strong?
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Describing Correlation Coefficients.
Correlation Coefficient (r) | Description (Rough Guideline ) |
---|---|
-0.6 to -0.8 | Strong - association |
-0.8 to -1.0 | Very strong - association |
-1.0 | Perfect negative association |
Correlation Coefficient = 0.8: A fairly strong positive relationship. Correlation Coefficient = 0.6: A moderate positive relationship. Correlation Coefficient = 0: No relationship.