UNIT 2

DATA COLLECTION AND PRESENTATION

2.1. CLASSIFICATION OF DATA

Data classification can be defined as a method of grouping data according to their similarities
and uses to study the characteristics of the entire population on the basis of their classes.
The classification of data is generally done on geographical, chronological, qualitative or
qualitative basis.

i) In geographical classification, data are arranged according to places, areas or regions.

ii) In chronological classification, data are arranged according to their time references.
iii) In qualitative classification, data are arranged according to attributes like sex, marital
status, educational standard, etc.
iv) In quantitative classification, data are arranged according to certain characteristics that
has been measured or counted.

Data can also be classified according to different aspects such as:

I. Depending on the type of variable
a) Qualitative data (categorical data)
In qualitative classification, data are arranged according to attributes.

Example
Data collected based on sex, marital status, and educational standard; and so on give rise to
qualitative data.
Sex: Male or Female
Marital status: Married, Single, Divorce, Widowed.
Educational standard: Literate or Illiterate.

Rank of instructors: Graduate assistant, Assistant lecturer, Lecturer, and so on.

b) Quantitative data
In quantitative classification, data are arranged according to certain characteristic that has been
counted or measured.
Quantitative variables are again divided in two groups: - discrete and continuous.

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Discrete data:-are described by integers only and their values are obtained by counting, the
possible values for such variables are 0, 1, 2… that means they assume only counting numbers.

Example
Number of students in Jimma University, number of private cars in Dire Dawa,
number of books are some of the examples that produces discrete data.

Continuous data:-are those quantitative figures which can take any numbers, including
fractions. Their values are obtained by measurement.

Example
Weight of a person in kg, height, temperature and so on give rise to continuous data.

II) Depending on time reference

a) Time series data: - are data collected over along period of time.
b) Cross sectional data:- are data collected over a particular period of time on a range of
spaces.

III) Depending on scales/Level of measurement

Proper knowledge about the nature and type of data to be dealt with is essential in order to
specify and apply the proper statistical method for their analysis and inferences. Measurement
scale refers to the property of value assigned to the data based on the properties of order, distance
and fixed zero.
The scales of measurement also show what mathematical operations and what statistical analyses
are permissible to be done on the values of the variable.
Accordingly, there are four scales of measurement: nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio scales.

a) Nominal scale variables

These are those qualitative variables that consist of name label or categories of individuals. In
nominal scales numbers are assigned to the variables simply for coding purposes. It is not
possible to compare two individuals based on the numbers assigned to them. They don’t share
any of the properties of the number we deal with an ordinary arithmetic.

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Example

Sex, Religion, Nationality, Country code, Color, Political party preference (Republican,
Democrat, or Other,), Marital status (married, single, widow, divorce) are nominal variables.

b) Ordinal scale
This refers to the variables whose values can be ordered or ranked but the difference between
data values either can’t be determined or is meaningless. Comparison is restricted. Ranking and
counting are the only mathematical operations to be done on the values given to these variables.
Example
 Rank of instructors in a university as graduate assistant, lecturer, and professor is ordinal.
 Beauty classified as beautiful, more beautiful and most beautiful is ordinal.
 Letter grades (A, B, C, D, F).
 Rating scales (Excellent, Very good, Good, Fair, poor).
 Military status
c) Interval scale
These variables have the properties of the ordinal scale plus the difference between two values is
constant. There is no true zero origin; that is, zero doesn’t show absence in this case. In other
words interval scales are measurement systems that possess the properties of Order and distance,
but not the property of fixed zero.
 Level of measurement which classifies data that can be ranked and differences are
meaningful. However, there is no meaningful zero, so ratios are meaningless.
 All arithmetic operations except division are applicable.
 Relational operations are also possible.

Example
 Temperature of a given area may be 0oc. But this doesn’t mean that there is no heat at all;
it simply indicates that it is too cold.
 IQ
d) Ratio scale

Ratio scales are measurement systems that possess all three properties: order, distance, and fixed
zero. The added power of a fixed zero allows ratios of numbers to be meaningfully interpreted;

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i.e. the ratio of Bekele's height to Martha's height is 1.32, whereas this is not possible with
interval scales.

• Level of measurement which classifies data that can be ranked, differences are meaningful,
and there is a true zero. True ratios exist between the different units of measure.

• All arithmetic and relational operations are applicable

Example1
 Income of a person, amount of yield from a plot of land, expenditure and consumption
amount. In all of these cases, if the variables assume zero values, it is the indication of
absence of the values. That means, for example, if yield is zero, it shows no yield at all.
 Weight
 Height
 Number of students
 Age

1.2. METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION AND DATA ORGANIZATION

There are two sources of data:
1. Primary Data
• Data measured or collect by the investigator or the user directly from the source.
• Two activities involved: planning and measuring.
a) Planning:
􀂃Identify source and elements of the data.
􀂃Decide whether to consider sample or census.
􀂃If sampling is preferred, decide on sample size, selection method,
… etc
􀂃Decide measurement procedure.
􀂃Set up the necessary organizational structure.
b) Measuring: there are different options.
􀂃Focus Group
􀂃Telephone Interview
􀂃Mail Questionnaires

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 􀂃Door-to-Door Survey
􀂃 Mall Intercept
􀂃 New Product Registration
􀂃 Personal Interview and
􀂃 Experiments are some of the sources for collecting the primary data.
2. Secondary Data
• Data gathered or compiled from published and unpublished sources or files.
• When our source is secondary data check that:
􀂃 The type and objective of the situations.
􀂃 The purpose for which the data are collected and compatible with
the present problem.
􀂃 The nature and classification of data is appropriate to our problem.
􀂃 There are no biases and misreporting in the published data.
Note: Data which are primary for one may be secondary for the other.

2.3. METHODS OF DATA PRESNTATION

-Having collected and edited the data, the next important step is to organize it. That is to present
it in a readily comprehensible condensed form that aids in order to draw inferences from it. It is
also necessary that the like be separated from the unlike ones.

- The presentation of data is broadly classified in to the following two categories:

• Tabular presentation

• Diagrammatic and Graphic presentation.

-The process of arranging data in to classes or categories according to similarities technically is

called classification.

-Classification is a preliminary and it prepares the ground for proper presentation of data.

Definitions:

• Raw data: recorded information in its original collected form, whether it be counts or
measurements, is referred to as raw data.

• Frequency: is the number of values in a specific class of the distribution.

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 • Frequency distribution: is the organization of raw data in table form using classes and
frequencies.

-There are three basic types of frequency distributions

􀂃Categorical frequency distribution

􀂃Ungrouped frequency distribution

􀂃Grouped frequency distribution

-There are specific procedures for constructing each type.

1) Categorical frequency Distribution:

-Used for data that can be place in specific categories such as nominal, or ordinal. e.g. marital
status.

Example
A social worker collected the following data on marital status for 25 persons. (M=married,
S=single, W=widowed, D=divorced). Prepare a frequency distribution.

M S D W D
S S M M M
W D S M M
W D D S S
S W W D D

Solution:
Since the data are categorical, discrete classes can be used. There are four types of marital status
(M, S, D, and W). These types will be used as class for the distribution. We follow the following
procedures to construct such a frequency distribution.
Step 1: Prepare a table as shown below.

Class Tally Frequency Percent

(1) (2) (3) (4)
M
S
D

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 W
Step 2: Tally the data and place the result in column (2).
Step 3: Count the tally and place the result in column (3).
Step 4: Find the percentages of values in each class by using:
f
×100
%= n , where f= frequency of the class, n=total number of values.
Percentages are not necessarily part of frequency distribution but they can be added since they
are used in certain types of diagrammatic representations such as pie charts.
Step 5: Find the total for column (3) and (4).
Combing the entire steps, one can construct the following frequency distribution.

Class Tally Frequency Percent

(1) (2) (3) (4)

M //// 5 20
S //// // 7 28
D //// // 7 28
W //// / 6 24

2) Numerical Frequency Distribution

In such frequency distributions, the data are classified according to numerical size. This is used
to summarize interval and ratio data. Numerical frequency distributions may be discrete
(ungrouped) or continuous (grouped), depending on whether the variable is discrete or
continuous.

Discrete (Ungrouped) frequency Distribution

 Is a table of all the potential raw score values that could possibly occur in the data along
with the number of times each value actually occurred.
 Such distribution is often constructed for small set or data on discrete variable.

To construct ungrouped frequency distribution, we need the following steps:

 First find the smallest and largest raw scores in the collected data.

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  Arrange the data in order of magnitude and count the frequency.
 To facilitate counting, one may include a column of tallies as shown above.
Example
The following data represent the mark of 20 students. Construct ungrouped frequency
distribution.
80 76 90 85 80
70 60 62 70 85
65 60 63 74 75
76 70 70 80 85
Solution:
Step 1: Find the range, Range=Max-Min=90-60=30.
Step 2: Make a table as shown below.
Step 3: Tally the data.
Step 4: Count the frequency and record in the last column.
Mark Tally Frequency
60 // 2
62 / 1
63 / 1
65 / 1
70 //// 4
74 / 1
75 // 2
76 / 1
80 /// 3
85 /// 3
90 / 1

Grouped (Continuous) frequency Distribution

This is a frequency distribution when several numbers are grouped in one class.
When the range of the data is large, the data must be grouped in to classes that are more than one
unit in width.

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Definition of some common terms
 Class limits: Separates one class in a grouped frequency distribution from another. The
limits could actually appear in the data and have gaps between the upper limits of one
class and lower limit of the next.
 Units of measurement (U): the distance between two possible consecutive measures. It
is usually taken as 1, 0.1, 0.01, 0.001, -----.
 Class boundaries: Separates one class in a grouped frequency distribution from another.
The boundaries have one more decimal places than the row data and therefore do not
appear in the data. There is no gap between the upper boundary of one class and lower
boundary of the next class.
The lower class boundary is obtained by subtracting 0.5U from the corresponding lower
class limit and the upper class boundary is obtained by adding 0.5U to the corresponding
upper class limit.
 Class width: the difference between the upper and lower class boundaries of any class. It
is also the difference between the lower limits of any two consecutive classes or the
difference between any two consecutive class marks.
 Class mark (Mid points): it is the average of the lower and upper class limits or the
average of upper and lower class boundary.
 Cumulative frequency: is the number of observations less than/more than or equal to a
specific value.
 Cumulative frequency above: it is the total frequency of all values greater than or equal
to the lower class boundary of a given class.
 Cumulative frequency below: it is the total frequency of all values less than or equal to
the upper class boundary of a given class.
 Cumulative Frequency Distribution (CFD): it is the tabular arrangement of class
interval together with their corresponding cumulative frequencies. It can be more than or
less than type, depending on the type of cumulative frequency used.
 Relative frequency (rf): it is the frequency divided by the total frequency. This gives
the percent of values falling in that class.

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 Relative cumulative frequency (rcf): it is the cumulative frequency divided by the total
frequency. Gives the percent of the values which are less than or more than the upper
class boundary.
Guidelines for classes
1. There should be between 5 and 20 classes.
2. The class width had better be an odd number. This will guarantee that the class midpoints
are integers instead of decimals.
3. The classes must be mutually exclusive. This means that no data value can fall into two
different classes.
4. The classes must be all inclusive or exhaustive. This means that all data values must be
included.
5. The classes must be continuous. There are no gaps in a frequency distribution. Classes
that have no values in them must be included (unless it's the first or last classes which are
dropped).
6. The classes must be equal in width. The exception here is the first or last class. It is
possible to have a "below ..." or "... and above" class. This is often used with ages.
Constructing a Grouped Frequency Distribution
1. Find the largest and smallest values.
2. Compute the Range (R) = Maximum - Minimum
3. Select the number of classes desired. This is usually between 5 and 20 or use Sturges’
rule of thumb:
K=1+3.32 logn , where k is number of classes desired and n is total number of
observations.
4. Find the class width dividing the range by the number of classes and rounding up

R
W=
k . There are two things to watch out here. You must round up, not off. Normally
3.2 would be rounded to 3, but in rounding up, it becomes 4. If the range divided by the
number of classes gives an integer value (no remainder), then you can either add one to
the number of classes or add one to the class width. Sometimes you're locked into a
certain number of classes because of the instructions.

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 5. Pick a suitable starting point less than or equal to the minimum value. The starting point is
called the lower limit of the first class. Continue to add the class width to this lower limit
to get the rest of the lower limits.
6. To find the upper limit of the first class, subtract U from the lower limit of the second
class. Then continue to add the class width to this upper limit to find the rest of the upper
limits.
7. Find the boundaries by subtracting 0.5U units from the lower limits and adding 0.5U units
on the upper limits. The boundaries are also half-way between the upper limit of one
class and the lower limit of the next class.
8. Tally the data.
9. Find the frequencies.
10. Find the cumulative frequencies. Depending on what you're trying to accomplish, it may
not be necessary to find out the cumulative frequencies.
11. If necessary, find the relative frequencies and/or relative cumulative frequencies
Example
Construct a frequency distribution for the following data.
11 29 6 33 14 31 22 27 19 20
18 17 22 38 23 21 26 34 39 27
Solution:
Step 1: Find the highest and the lowest value H=39, L=6.

Step 2: Find the range; R=H-L=39-6=33.

Step 3: Select the number of classes desired using Sturges’ formula:

k=1+3.32log (20) =5.32=6(rounding up).

Step 4: Find the class width; w=R/k=33/6=5.5=6 (rounding up)

Step 5: Select the starting point, let it be the minimum observation. Then,

6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36 are the lower class limits.

Step 6: Find the upper class limit.

E.g. the first upper class=12-U=12-1=11. Then,

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 11, 17, 23, 29, 35, 41 are the upper class limits.

So, combining steps 5 and 6, one can construct the following classes:

Class limits
6 – 11
12 – 17
18 – 23
24 – 29
30 – 35
36 – 41

Step 7: Find the class boundaries.

E.g. for the first class, lower class boundary=6-U/2=5.5,

Upper class boundary =11+U/2=11.5.

Then, continue adding W on both boundaries to obtain the rest boundaries. By doing, so one can

obtain the following class boundaries:

Class boundary
5.5 – 11.5
11.5 – 17.5
17.5 – 23.5
23.5 – 29.5
29.5 – 35.5
35.5 – 41.5

Step 8: Tally the data.

Step 9: Write the numeric values for the tallies in the frequency column.

Step 10: Find cumulative frequency.

Step 11: Find relative frequency or/and relative cumulative frequency.

The complete frequency distribution follows:

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Class Class Class Tally Freq. Cf (less Cf (more rf. rcf (less
limit boundary Mark than type) than type) than type

6 – 11 5.5 – 11.5 8.5 // 2 2 20 0.10 0.10

12 – 17 11.5 – 17.5 14.5 // 2 4 18 0.10 0.20
18 – 23 17.5 – 23.5 20.5 //// // 7 11 16 0.35 0.55
24 – 29 23.5 – 29.5 26.5 //// 4 15 9 0.20 0.75
30 – 35 29.5 – 35.5 32.5 /// 3 18 5 0.15 0.90
36 – 41 35.5 – 41.5 38.5 // 2 20 2 0.10 1.00

2.4 DIAGRAMMATIC AND GRAPHIC PRESENTATION OF DATA.

These are techniques for presenting data in visual displays using diagrams and pictures.
Importance: -
• They have greater attraction.
• They facilitate comparison.
• They are easily understandable.
Diagrammatic presentation of data
-Diagrams are appropriate for presenting discrete as well as qualitative data.
-The three most commonly used diagrammatic presentations for discrete as well as
qualitative data are:
• Pie charts
• Pictogram
• Bar chart
Pie chart
A Pie Chart is a circular chart divided into sectors, illustrating relative magnitudes or frequencies
of classes of a given variable. Pie chart usually represents categorical data but it is also possible
to use it for discrete quantitative data. The angle of each sector has to be proportional to the

value of the part

relative frequency of a given class. Angle of Sector= the whole quantity * 100.
Example
Draw a suitable diagram to represent the following population in a town.

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 Men Women Girls Boys
2500 2000 4000 1500

Solution: Draw a pie-chart.

Step 1: Find the percentage.
Step 2: Find the number of degrees for each class.
Step 3: Using a protractor and compass, graph each section and write its name corresponding
percentage.

Class Frequency Percent Degree

Men 2500 25 90
Women 2000 20 72
Girls 4000 40 144
Boys 1500 15 54

15%
25%

Men
Women
Girls
Boys
40% 20%

Bar Charts

- A set of bars (thick lines or narrow rectangles) representing some magnitude over time space.
- They are useful for comparing aggregate over time space.
- Bars can be drawn either vertically or horizontally.
- There are different types of bar charts. The most common being:
 Simple bar chart

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  Deviation or two way bar chart
 Broken bar chart
 Component or sub divided bar chart.
 Multiple bar charts.

Simple Bar Chart

-Are used to display data on one variable.
-They are thick lines (narrow rectangles) having the same breadth. The magnitude of a quantity
is represented by the height /length of the bar.
Example
The following data represent sale by product, 1957- 1959 of a given company for three products
A, B, C.
Product Sales($) Sales($) Sales($)
In 1957 In 1958 In 1959
A 12 14 18
B 24 21 18
C 24 35 54

A Simple Bar chart for sale by product in year 1997 is:

Sales($) In 1957

30
24 24
25

20

15 12
10

0
A B C

Component Bar chart

-When there is a desire to show how a total (or aggregate) is divided in to its component parts,
we use component bar chart.
-The bars represent total value of a variable with each total broken in to its component parts and
different paints or designs are used for identifications.

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Example
Draw a component bar chart to represent the sales by product from 1957 to 1959.
Solution:

Sales By product in 1957-1959

100

80
sales in $

product C
60
product B
40
product A
20

0
1957 1958 1959
Years of production

Multiple Bar charts

- These are used to display data on more than one variable.

- They are used for comparing different variables at the same time.

Example
Draw a multiple bar chart to represent the sales by product from 1957 to 1959.
Solution:
Sales by Product in 1957-1959

60
50
Sales in $

40 product A
30 product B
20 product C
10
0
1957 1958 1959
Years of production

Broken Bar diagram

This chart is used to present data involving few extreme figures where it will be difficult to
accommodate the bars corresponding to those figures with in graph paper. In this case, we use
piece of bars with each piece starting a jump on the numerical data.

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Activity 2.1
For Example 1.13 above, draw a diagram presenting by product in 1958, assuming that there was
a product D whose sales in 1958 was $ 100000.
Graphical Presentation of data
The histogram, frequency polygon and cumulative frequency curve or Ogive are most commonly
applied graphical representations for continuous data.
Procedures for constructing statistical graphs
• Draw and label the X and Y axes.
• Choose a suitable scale for the frequencies or cumulative frequencies and label it on the Y
axes.
• Represent the class boundaries for the histogram or Ogive or the mid points for the
frequency polygon on the X axes.
• Plot the points.
• Draw the bars or lines to connect the points.
Histogram
This is a graph which displays the data by using vertical bars of various heights to represent
frequencies. Class boundaries are placed along the horizontal axes. Class marks and class limits
are sometimes used as quantity on the X axes. Unlike Bar graph, in the case of Histogram, the
categories (bars) must be adjacent.
Example
The following table summarizes the probability and statistics mid exam score of 38 students out
of 35 marks.

If we want to draw Histogram for this data it would look like the following:

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 Histogram of probability and statistics marks in mid exam

Frequency Polygon
Frequency Polygon depicts a frequency distribution for discrete or continuous numeric data.
Frequency polygons are graphical device for understanding the shapes of distributions.

A Histogram can easily be changed to Frequency Polygon by joining the mid points of the top of
the adjacent rectangles of the Histogram with a line. It is also possible to draw Frequency
Polygon without drawing Histogram.
Example
The following Frequency Distribution represents the ages (in years) of 60 patients at a
psychiatric counseling centre. Represent the data by a frequency polygon.

Then we have to identify the mid points of each interval.

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Finally we have to plot the midpoints (on the X axis) with respective frequency of each class (on
the Y axis) and connect adjacent plots with a straight line.

Note that: Two artificial class marks at both ends with frequencies of zero have been added to
“tie down” the graph on the X-Axis.
Ogive (cumulative frequency polygon)
This is a graph showing the cumulative frequency (the less than or more than type) plotted
against upper or lower class boundaries, respectively. That is, class boundaries are plotted along
the horizontal axis and the corresponding cumulative frequencies are plotted along the vertical
axis. The points are then joined by a free hand curve.

There are two types of ogive

1. Less than ogive :- is a line graph obtained from less than cumulative frequency plotted
against upper boundaries of their respective class intervals
2. More than Ogive :- is a line graph obtained from more than cumulative frequency
plotted against the lower boundaries of their respective class intervals

Example

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Draw both cumulative frequency curves for the following data.

Class Class
Limit F boundary LCB UCB
3-7 3 2.5-7.5 2.5 7.5
8-12 4 7.5-12.5 7.5 12.5
13-17 6 12.5-17.5 12.5 17.5
18-22 13 17.5-22.5 17.5 22.5
23-27 17 22.5-27.5 22.5 27.5
28-32 6 27.5-32.5 27.5 32.5
33-37 1 32.5-37.5 32.5 37.5

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The less than Ogive curve:

50

40

30
20

10

0
7.5 12.5 17.5 27.5 32.5 37.5

22.
Upper class boundary
5

The More than Ogive curve:

50
40
30
20
10
0
32.5 37.5 27.5 22.5 17.5 12.5 7.5
Lower class boundary

The less than and More than Ogive curves together:

50
40
30
20
10
0
7.5 12.5 17.5 22.5 27.5 32.5 37.5
Class boundaries

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