GCSE Maths – Statistics

Grouped Discrete Data and Continuous Data

(Higher Only)
Notes

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Discrete Data
Discrete data – data that must take one of a set of certain values. For example, the number
of people in a room cannot be 5.25, it can only take a whole number value such as 5.

Grouped discrete data – data points are given as values within a group. We call this group
a class. For example, there are 3 people who own 1-3 pairs of shoes, 2 people who own 4-6
pairs of shoes, and so on.

Continuous Data
Continuous data – numerical data which can take any value in a given range. Examples
include age, height and weight.

Grouped continuous data – data points are given as values within a group. For example,
there might be 7 netball players with height in the class 150cm < height ≤ 160cm, 4 netball
players with height in the class 160cm < height ≤ 170cm.

Histograms
We use histograms to display continuous grouped data.
Histograms look similar to bar graphs. However, the height of each bar does not represent
the frequency. Instead,
𝑨𝑨𝑨𝑨𝑨𝑨𝑨𝑨 𝒐𝒐𝒐𝒐 𝑩𝑩𝑩𝑩𝑩𝑩 = 𝑭𝑭𝒓𝒓𝒓𝒓𝒓𝒓𝒓𝒓𝒓𝒓𝒓𝒓𝒓𝒓𝒓𝒓

The area of the bar is its height multiplied by its width.

The class interval or class width is the size of each class (group
of data). Widths might be equal or unequal. This is plotted along
the x-axis.
Frequency density is the frequency divided by the class width.
Frequency density is plotted on the y-axis and is equal to the height
of each bar.
variable

The frequency density, frequency and class width are

related, as shown in the formula triangle. Using the
triangle, we can easily find the formula for each quantity by
covering that section.
For example, to find class width, cover ‘class width’ to see
that:
𝐹𝐹𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟
𝐶𝐶𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙 𝑊𝑊𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖ℎ =
𝐹𝐹𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 𝐷𝐷𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒

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Example: 100 people were timed while completing a puzzle. Their results are shown in the table.
Create a histogram displaying their times.

Time (minutes) Frequency

0 < t ≤ 10 10
10 < t ≤ 15 15
15 < t ≤ 20 30
20 < t ≤ 30 20
30 < t ≤ 45 25

1. Add columns to the table for class width and frequency density.

Calculate class width and use this value along with frequency to calculate each frequency density.

Time (minutes) Frequency Class width Frequency Density

0 < t ≤ 10 10 10 10 ÷ 10 = 1
10 < t ≤ 15 15 5 15 ÷ 5 = 3
15 < t ≤ 20 30 5 30 ÷ 5 = 6
20 < t ≤ 30 20 10 20 ÷ 10 = 2
30 < t ≤ 45 25 15 25 ÷ 15 = 1.67

2. Use the class widths and frequency densities to plot the histogram.

Draw the x- and y-axis. Label the x-axis with the investigating variable (time) and the y-axis with
frequency density.

Draw each bar by plotting the length of time against the frequency density.

For example, the first group is 10 minutes long, and has a frequency density of 1. The bar that
represents it should be 10 units wide and 1 unit tall.

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Cumulative frequency graphs
Cumulative frequency graphs show the total frequencies of grouped data at fixed points.
The variable measured is on the x-axis, and cumulative frequency on the y-axis. The
cumulative frequency is a running total of all recorded frequencies so far, and increases as
you add each grouped frequency. You can use cumulative frequency graphs to find the
median and interquartile range.

Example: The hop length of 100 footballers was collected and recorded in a table.

Length (metres) Frequency

0<m ≤1 10
1<m ≤2 20
2 < m ≤ 2.5 30
2.5 < m ≤ 3 30
3<m ≤4 10

Draw a cumulative frequency graph to display this data.

1. Add a column to the table for cumulative frequency and upper boundary.

The cumulative frequency is a running total taken at the end of each group whereas the
upper boundary is the highest value within the class group.

Length (metres) Frequency Cumulative frequency Upper boundary

0<m ≤1 10 10 1
1<m ≤2 20 20 + 10 = 30 2
2 < m ≤ 2.5 30 30 + 30 = 60 2.5
2.5 < m ≤ 3 30 60 + 30 = 90 3
3<m ≤4 10 90 + 10 = 100 4

2. Plot cumulative frequency graph

Plot a point showing cumulative frequencies on the upper boundary of each group.
For example, the first point would be at 10 (the cumulative frequency) and 1 (the upper
bound of the first group). Draw this point on the graph at (10, 1). Join all the points with a
smooth curve, making sure your line passed through the origin (0,0).

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Interpreting cumulative frequency graphs

To find the median value from a cumulative frequency graph, draw a line across from the
point on the y-axis which is half of the total frequency, and draw a line down to the x-axis
to get a reading. This value from the x-axis is the median of the data.

To find the interquartile range, use the same process to find the lower quartile (Q1) which
is at 25% of cumulative frequency, and upper quartile (Q3) which is 75% of the cumulative
frequency. The interquartile range is Q3 – Q1.

Upper Quartile
(75%)

Median

Lower
Quartile
Quartile

Quartile
Median
Lower

Upper

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Grouped Discrete Data and Continuous Data (Higher Only) - Practice
Questions

1. Below is a grouped frequency table showing the results of an English test.

a) Draw a histogram showing the results of the test.

Score, p (%) Frequency

40 < p ≤ 50 5
50 < p ≤ 60 12
60 < p ≤ 70 8
70 < p ≤ 90 15
90 < p ≤ 100 10

b) Calculate an estimate for the median score using the histogram.

2. The table below shows information about how long it takes a group of children to get
to school.

Draw a histogram to show this data.

Time, t (minutes) Frequency

0<t ≤5 4
5 < t ≤ 15 18
15 < t ≤ 20 10
20 < t ≤ 30 6
30 < t ≤ 40 2

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 3. Below is a frequency table showing the amount of time people spent on social media
per day. Plot a cumulative frequency graph to show this data.

Time, t (minutes) Frequency

0<t ≤5 10
5 < t ≤ 15 25
15 < t ≤ 30 20
30 < t ≤ 50 15
50 < t ≤ 60 20

4. Below is a frequency table showing the price brackets that some laptops on sale fall
into. Plot a cumulative frequency graph to show this data.

Price, p (£) Frequency

50 < p ≤ 100 2
100 < p ≤ 150 15
150 < p ≤ 200 9
200 < p ≤ 300 19
300 < p ≤ 450 5

Worked solutions for the practice questions can be found amongst the worked solutions for the corresponding
worksheet file.

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