WHAT’S NEW

A frequency distribution is a representation, either in a graphical or tabular format that

displays the number of observations within a given interval. The interval size depends on the
data being analysed and the goals of the analyst. Frequency distributions are typically used
within a statistical context.
The frequency distribution is the basic building block of statistical analytical methods
and the first step in analysing survey data. It helps researchers (a) organize and summarize the
survey data in a tabular format, (b) interpret the data, and (c) detect outliers (extreme values) in
the survey data set.
Have your tried tallying in the past, like in the scores, weight, height, sales, disease, and
others.
The data below is the grades of 25 students in a long test in Biology, 78, 80, 78, 82, 84,
88, 36, 78, 78, 36, 34, 78, 86, 84, 80, 78, 82, 80, 34, 82, 84, 82, 78, 82, 78. This is an example of
raw data, which is very difficult to understand and see the pattern if it will not be organized.

Let us organized the data in two different ways.

Grades of 25 students in Biology Grades of 25 students in Biology

Class Tally Frequency
Grade Tally Frequency Interval
88 | 1 88 - 93 | 1
87 0 82 - 87 |||| |||| 9
86 | 1 76 – 81 11
|||| |||| |
85 0 70 – 75 0
84 ||| 3 64 – 69 0
83 0 58 – 63 0
82 |||| 5 52 – 57 0
81 0 46 – 51 0
80 ||| 3 40 – 45 0
79 0 34 - 39 |||| 4
78 |||| - ||| 8 N = 25
36 || 2
34 || 2
How many students got a score
N = 25
between 82 – 87?
What is the score with a
frequency of 4?
What is the highest score? What class interval has the
Based on the table how many highest frequency?
students got a score of 84? How do we call this table which
What score did most students shows frequencies?
got? Are there other ways of showing
the data in the table given
above?
The questions can easily be answered based from the presented table because the data is
organized.
The above data is organized in a table called Frequency Distribution Table where the first
table is ungrouped data and the second one is the grouped data which can also be called
Grouped Frequency Distribution Table.

WHAT IS IT
In statistics, numerical information may be treated as ungrouped or grouped data. In both
cases, tabular presentation is very important. This tabular presentation of data is called the
frequency distribution table.
Data organized and summarized in tables are called grouped data.
Raw data are the collected data, which have not been organized. We can hardly see any
pattern in any set of raw data. An example is the data obtained in the survey on the number of
cell phones possessed by each family.

Example 1: Consider the number of cell phones possessed by each family.

3 4 5 4 3 4 1 6 5 2
4 5 2 3 6 3 3 2 1 3
2 3 4 5 3 2 4 3 4 5
4 2 5 3 4 6 3 5 3 6
1 3 4 2 3 4 2 4 6 3

1. How many families were surveyed?

2. How many families have at least two cellphones in their possession?
3. How many families have less than four cell phones?

We have to organize the data using a table by following the given steps.
1. Set up a table using three columns.
Number of cell phones Tally Frequency
Each item in
1
column 1 is
2
called a class of
3 the table. The
4 class can be
5 written from
6 lowest to
Total highest or vice
versa.

2. Read each item in the raw data and mark a stroke or tally in the Tally
column in the same row as its class.
Number of cell phones Tally Frequency
1 ||| Make every 5th
2 |||| - ||| stroke with a
3 |||| - |||| - |||| cross stroke
4 |||| - |||| - || like ”||||” to
5 |||| - || make the
6 |||| counting
Total easier.

3. The frequency of the class is the number of times each class occurs. Write down the
frequency of each class by counting its corresponding tally marks. Find the sum of all the
frequencies and write it as shown.
Number of cell phones Tally Frequency
The sum
1 ||| 3
serves as a
2 |||| - ||| 8
check
3 |||| - |||| - |||| 15
|||| - |||| - || whether the
4 12
|||| - || tallying is
5 7
6 |||| 5 correct or
Total 50 not.

The table formed above is called a frequency table. The frequency table shows clear and
definite information about a set of data. With the frequency table, we can easily know which
class has the lowest frequency.
Organization of data in a grouped
Lesson 2
frequency distribution table.

The data represented by the table where the tally marks are dropped are called grouped
data. Hence, we call it a grouped frequency distribution table.
The table shows ten class intervals, starting from the lowest class interval (10-11) and ending at
the highest interval (28-29).
Example 1:
Scores of 60 students in
a 30-point Math Quiz - The class intervals are non-
Class Interval Frequency overlapping in order that no single item
(f ) can fall into classes.
28-29 1 - In the class interval, 10-11, the lower
26-27 3 limit is 10 and the upper limit is 11.
24-25 3 Hence, the left member of the class
22-23 3 interval is the lower limit while the right
20-21 6 member is the upper limit.
18-19 6 - The difference between any
16-17 8 consecutive lower limits is the class
14-15 6 width.
12-13 10 - The class width is also the difference
10-11 14 of any two consecutive upper limits.
N = 60

The following procedure shows how the table in the Example was obtained.
Steps in constructing a Grouped Frequency distribution.
1. Find the range r. The range is the difference of the highest score and the lowest score. Add one (1) to the difference to
arrive at the total number of scores or potential scores.
Range = 29 – 10 = 19
Total number of potential scores = 19 + 1 = 20
2. Decide the number of classes or class intervals desired. A class is a grouping or category. Statisticians said that the
ideal number of classes is between 5 to 15. For the above data, If ten (10) is the desired number of class intervals, then
Range 20
Class interval ( i ) = = =2
Total number of potential scores 10
3. Write the lowest score in the set of raw scores as the lower limit in the lowest class interval. Add to this value i – 1 to
obtain the upper limit in the lowest class interval. The lowest score is 10. Thus, the lowest class interval is 10 – 11, since
10 + i – 1 = 10 + 2 – 1 = 11.
4. Determine the lower and upper class limits of the succeeding class intervals by adding i to the lower and upper limits of
the preceding class interval until the highest class interval is obtained. Thus, the next lower limit is 12 and the
corresponding upper limit is 13, since 10 + 2 = 12 and 11 + 2 is 13. This is written as 12 – 13, where 12 is the lower
limit and 13 is the upper limit. The next class is 14 to 14 + 2 – 1 or 14 – 15. The other classes are formed in
the same manner. Thus, the other classes are 16-17, 18-19, 20-21, 22–23, 24-25, 26–27, 28-29. The highest
class should contain the highest score.
5. Fill out the f column by following what we have done in the frequency distribution. The column for tally is
optional.

Class Interval Tally Frequency

(f )
28-29 | 1
26-27 ||| 3
24-25 ||| 3
22-23 ||| 3
20-21 |||| | 6
18-19 |||| | 6
16-17 |||| ||| 8
14-15 |||| | 6
12-13 |||| |||| 10
10-11 |||| |||| |||| 14
N = 60
Example 2: Prepare a grouped frequency distribution on the scores of 40 students in a
math quiz. Shown below are their scores.

86 83 81 81 86 91 79 82 81 87 87 83

82 72 73 78 87 71 94 91 90 82 85 88

71 99 76 96 80 89 98 89 82 80 75 90

72 83 74 85
Scores of 40 students in a
Math Quiz
Solution:
Class Interval f
Lowest score: 71
Highest score: 99 98-100 2
range = 99 – 71 = 28; 28 + 1 = 29 95-97 1
Desired class is 10. 92-94 1
29 89-91 6
i= = 2.9 = 3
10 86-88 6
83-85 5
80-82 9
Lower limit: 71 77-79 2
Upper limit: 71 + i – 1 = 71 + 3 – 1 = 73 74-76 3
Lowest class interval: 71 - 73 71-73 5
Second class interval: 74 - 76 and so on.

N= 40

Organization of data in a
Lesson 3 Cumulative Frequency
Distribution Table

The following are numerical values that are relevant or applicable in dealing with frequency
distribution:
1. Class mark. It is the middle value or midpoint of the class interval and is obtained by adding
the lower and the upper class limits and dividing by 2.

16+20
For the class interval of 16-20: Class mark = = 18
2
2. Class boundaries or True Limits. They are often described as the true limits because these
are more precise expressions of class limits. The lower boundary of the class is 0.5 less
than its lower limit, and its upper boundary is 0.5 more than its upper limit.
In the class 16 – 20, the lower boundary is 25 – 0.5 = 24.5 and the upper boundary is
27 + 0.5 = 27.5
3 Cumulative frequency. There are two kinds of cumulative frequency for a class. The less
than cumulative frequency can be obtained by adding the frequency starting from the frequency
of the lowest class interval up to the frequency of the highest class interval. It is possible also to
do the reverse, that is, we start to cumulate in the other direction. This is the greater than
cumulative frequency.
The Table below shows the cumulative frequency distribution of the 45 students in the Science
quiz.
Cumulative Frequency Distribution of 45 students in the Science Quiz
Class Class Boundaries
Class f Mark Lower Boundary Upper Boundary < Cf > Cf
40-42 1 41 39.5 42.5 45 1
37-39 0 38 36.5 39.5 44 1
34-36 2 35 33.5 36.5 44 3
31-33 2 32 30.5 33.5 42 5
28-30 14 29 27.5 30.5 40 19
25-27 15 26 24.5 27.5 26 34
22-24 5 23 21.5 24.5 11 39
19-21 6 20 18.5 21.5 6 45
N=
45

Take a look at the shaded raw as our reference.

31+ 33
Class mark of class 31-33: = 32
2

Lower boundary of class 31-33: 31 – 0.5 = 30.5

Upper boundary of class 31-33: 33 + 0.5 = 33.5
Less than Cumulative Frequency of class 31-33: 2 + 14 +15 + 5 + 6 = 42
This signifies that 42 students got a score less than 33.5.
Greater than Cumulative Frequency of class 31-33: 2 + 2 + 0 + 1 = 5
This signifies that 5 students got a score greater than 30.5.
A score of 26 under the heading < cf means that there are 26 students who got a score less than
27.5. a score of 19 under the heading of >cf means that there are 19 students who got a score
greater than 27.5.