UNIVERSITY OF CAGAYAN VALLEY

(Formerly Cagayan Colleges Tuguegarao)

Tuguegarao City, Cagayan, Philippines
SCHOOL OF LIBERAL ARTS AND TEACHER EDUCATION
What Is Frequency Distribution?

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
analyzed and the goals of the analyst. The intervals must be mutually exclusive and exhaustive.
Frequency distributions are typically used within a statistical context. Generally, frequency
distribution can be associated with the charting of a normal distribution.

Frequency distribution provides the information of the number of occurrences (frequency) of

distinct values distributed within a given period of time or interval, in a list, table, or graphical
representation. Grouped and Ungrouped are two types of Frequency Distribution. Data is a
collection of numbers or values and it must be organized for it to be useful. Let us take a look at
data and its frequency distribution.

Definitions of terms

1. The Range is the difference between the lowest and highest values.
2. The class interval is the number of data values that fall in the range specified by the
interval.
3. The Class boundaries are the numbers used to separate classes. The size of the gap
between classes is the difference between the upper class limit of one class and the lower
class limit of the next class.
The lower boundary of each class is calculated by subtracting half of the gap
value 12=0.512=0.5 from the class lower limit. On the other hand, the upper boundary of
each class is calculated by adding half of the gap value 12=0.512=0.5 to the class
upper limit.
4. The class midpoint (or class mark) is a specific point in the center of the bins (categories)
in a frequency distribution table; It's also the center of a bar in a histogram. It is defined
as the average of the upper and lower class limits.
5. The class size isthe difference between the true upper limit and true lower limit of a class
interval.
6. A relative frequency is the fraction of times an answer occurs. To find the relative
frequencies, divide each frequency by the total number of students in the sample - in this
case, 20. Relative frequencies can be written as fractions, percents, or decimals.
7. Cumulative relative frequency is the accumulation of the previous relative frequencies.
To find the cumulative relative frequencies, add all the previous relative frequencies to
the relative frequency for the current row.
 UNIVERSITY OF CAGAYAN VALLEY
(Formerly Cagayan Colleges Tuguegarao)
Tuguegarao City, Cagayan, Philippines
SCHOOL OF LIBERAL ARTS AND TEACHER EDUCATION
CONSTRUCTION OF FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION

The following steps are involved in the construction of a frequency distribution.

1. Find the range of the data: The range (r) is the difference between the largest and the
smallest values.
2. Decide the approximate number of classes in which the data are to be grouped. There are
no hard and first rules for number of classes. In most cases we have 55 to 2020 classes.
H.A. Sturges provides a formula for determining the approximation number of classes.

K=1+3.3 logN
where K= Number of classes and log N = Logarithm of the total number of observations.
Example: If the total number of observations is 50, the number of classes would be
K=1+3.3logN
K=1+3.3log50
K=1+3.3(1.69897)
K=1+5.644
K = 6.644 or 7 classes, approximately

3. Determine the approximate class interval size: The size of class interval is obtained by
dividing the range of data by the number of classes and is denoted by h class interval size.
𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒(𝑟)
(𝑖 ) =
𝑁𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑠 (𝑘)
In the case of fractional results, the next higher whole number is taken as the size of the
class interval.
4. Decide the starting point: The lower class limit or class boundary should cover the
smallest value in the raw data. It is a multiple of class intervals.Example: 0, 5, 10, 15, 20,
etc. are commonly used.
5. Determine the remaining class limits (boundary): When the lowest class boundary has
been decided, by adding the class interval size to the lower class boundary you can
compute the upper class boundary. The remaining lower and upper class limits may be
determined by adding the class interval size repeatedly till the largest value of the data is
observed in the class.
6. Distribute the data into respective classes: All the observations are divided into respective
classes by using the tally bar (tally mark) method, which is suitable for tabulating the
observations into respective classes. The number of tally bars is counted to get the
frequency against each class. The frequency of all the classes is noted to get the grouped
data or frequency distribution of the data. The total of the frequency columns must be
equal to the number of observations.
 UNIVERSITY OF CAGAYAN VALLEY
(Formerly Cagayan Colleges Tuguegarao)
Tuguegarao City, Cagayan, Philippines
SCHOOL OF LIBERAL ARTS AND TEACHER EDUCATION
7. A cumulative frequency distribution table is a more detailed table. It looks almost the
same as a frequency distribution table but it has added columns that give the cumulative
frequency and the cumulative percentage of the results, as well.
8. This relative frequency of a particular observation or class interval is found by dividing
the frequency (f) by the number of observations (n): that is, (f ÷ n). Thus:
Relative frequency = frequency ÷ number of observations
The percentage frequency is found by multiplying each relative frequency value by 100.
Thus:Percentage frequency = relative frequency X 100 = f ÷ n X 100

Example Construction of Frequency Distribution

Construct a frequency distribution with the suitable class interval size of marks obtained by 50
students of a class, which are given below:

23, 50, 38, 42, 63, 75, 12, 33, 26, 39, 35, 47, 43, 52, 56, 59, 64, 77, 15, 21, 51, 54, 72, 68, 36, 65,
52, 60, 27, 34, 47, 48, 55, 58, 59, 62, 51, 48, 50, 41, 57, 65, 54, 43, 56, 44, 30, 46, 67, 53

SOLUTION:

Arrange the marks in ascending order as

10, 15, 21, 23, 26, 27, 30, 33, 34, 35, 36, 38, 39, 41, 42, 43, 43, 44, 46, 47, 47, 48, 48, 50, 50, 51,
51, 52, 52, 53, 54, 54, 55, 56, 56, 57, 58, 59, 59, 60, 62, 63, 64, 65, 65, 67, 68, 72, 75, 77

Minimum Value = 10 Maximum = 77

Range = Maximum Value – Minimum Value = 77–10 = 67

Number of Classes = 1+3.3 logN

Number of Classes = 1+3.3 log50

Number of Classes = 1+3.3 (1.69897)

Number of Classes = 1+5.64 = 6.6 or 7, approximately.

𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒(𝑟)
Class Interval Size (𝑖 ) = 𝑁𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑠 (𝑘)= 67/7 = 9.57 or 10
 UNIVERSITY OF CAGAYAN VALLEY
(Formerly Cagayan Colleges Tuguegarao)
Tuguegarao City, Cagayan, Philippines
SCHOOL OF LIBERAL ARTS AND TEACHER EDUCATION

CUMMULATIVE AND RELATIVE FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION

Example:

class cumulative relative

class limits f midpoint
boundary frequency frequency
10-19 2 9.5 - 19.5 14.5 2 4%
20-29 4 19.9 – 29.5 24.5 6 8%
30-39 7 29.5 – 39.5 34.5 13 14%
40-49 10 39.5 – 49.5 35.5 23 20%
50-59 16 49.5 – 59.5 45.5 39 32%
60-69 8 59.5 – 69.5 55.5 47 16%
70-79 3 69.5 – 79.5 65.5 50 6%
N=50 100.00%

rf= f/50 x 100

 UNIVERSITY OF CAGAYAN VALLEY
(Formerly Cagayan Colleges Tuguegarao)
Tuguegarao City, Cagayan, Philippines
SCHOOL OF LIBERAL ARTS AND TEACHER EDUCATION
Measures of Central Tendency
 It describes the measure of central location.
 A measure of central tendency is a value used to represent the typical or “average” value
in a data set.
1. Mean (𝑥̅ /𝜇) – also known as the average. It is the sum of the data which is divided by
the number of the data.
Σ(𝑥) 𝑥 +𝑥 +𝑥 +⋯+𝑥𝑛
Formula: 𝑥̅ = 𝑛 or 𝑥̅ = 1 2 𝑛3

Example: Following are the time in minutes spent in the cafeteria queue 12, 24, 16, 16,
18, 21, 20, 23, 16, 19. Find the average time.
n = 10 (just count the number of data)
Solution:
12+24+ 16+ 16+ 18+ 21+ 20+ 23+ 16+19
𝑥̅ = 10
185
𝑥̅ = 10
𝑥̅ = 18.5 (if the answer is in many decimal point, round off the answer to the nearest two
decimal point)

2. Median (𝑥̃) – the middle most score.

Rule: Arrange first the data into ascending order before locating the meddle most score or
the median
Note: if the value of “n” is odd number, then just gen the middle most score
If the value of “n” is even number, then get the two middle most scored, add them
and divide the sum by two.

Example:
1) 12, 24, 16, 16, 18, 21, 23, 16, 19 n=9
Since the value of “n” is an odd number, then we just get the middle score.
Arrange first the data from lowest to highest scores
12 16 16 16 18 19 21 23 24
𝑥̃ = 18

2) 12, 24, 16, 16, 18, 21, 23, 16, 19, 20 n = 10

Since the value of “n” is an odd number, then:
12 16 16 16 18 19 20 21 23 24

18 + 19 37
𝑥̃ = = = 18.5
2 2
 UNIVERSITY OF CAGAYAN VALLEY
(Formerly Cagayan Colleges Tuguegarao)
Tuguegarao City, Cagayan, Philippines
SCHOOL OF LIBERAL ARTS AND TEACHER EDUCATION
The median is 18.5, no need to round it off to nearest whole number.
3. Mode (𝑥̂) – most frequent occurring score/s
a) No mode – there are no frequent scores
b) Unimodal – only one mode
c) Bimodal – 2 modes
d) Trimodal – 3 modes
e) Multimodal – 4 or more modes
Example:
12 16 16 16 18 19 20 21 23 24

Since the most frequent occurring score is 16, then:

𝑥̂ = 16 unimodal

Note: In our example, 16 occurred 3 times meaning 16 is the mode but it is unimodal
because we are just talking about the scores and not how many scores occurred in the
data.

Example:
12 16 16 18 18 19 19 21 23 24

̂ = 𝟏𝟔, 𝟏𝟖, 𝟏𝟗 trimodal

𝒙

EXERCISES 4:

Solve the following problems

1. The following are the numbers of undergraduate units earned by 40 salesmen of a certain
company.
48 60 96 78 120 54 72 72 102 108
96 110 52 60 66 120 42 60 112 65
85 54 125 84 90 66 48 83 84 96
79 86 93 110 120 86 99 88 73 88
Construct a frequency distribution table.

2. In a study of 30 student grade averages, the following data were obtained.

88 78 89 76 75 77 98 99 79 78
76 75 87 75 92 94 96 78 88 88
98 96 77 77 77 76 87 89 89 76
Construct a frequency distribution table.

3. Find the mean, median and mode (ungrouped data) of items 1 and 2.