How many types are there of frequency distribution?

Answer 1

Introduction:

Frequency distribution is used to compress and summarize the whole data by grouping the data into classes and records the data points that fall in each class. The frequency distribution is considered as the base for descriptive statistics and they are also used to define the ordinal, nominal and the interval data. Frequency distribution is the comfortable way of grouping and organizing the data.

Example of Frequency Distribution:Consider the frequency table for the students in a class where the data has been grouped according to the height of the students.

Range of height Total number of student's cumulative frequency

3.0 - 4.5 feet 15 15

4.5 - 5.0 feet 20 35

5.0 - 6.5 feet 25 50

6.5 - 7.0 feet 30 80

In the case of nominal data the use of the contingency table is required. The frequency distributions are used to present the data graphically.

Types of Frequency Distributions:There are three types of frequency distributions.

1. Cumulative frequency distribution,
2. Grouped frequency distribution,
3. Cumulative Grouped frequency distribution.

Cumulative frequency distribution (type 1):

The cumulative frequency can be found from the frequency distribution by adding the cumulative frequency column. The highest cumulative frequency should be equal to the total number of frequencies

Temperature Frequency Cumulative frequency

47 3 22

46 3 19

45 4 15

44 3 12

43 3 9

Grouped frequency distribution (type 2):

The grouped frequency distribution can be formed by grouping the values together into the class intervals. The range can be calculated using the maximum and the minimum values.

Data set for temperature

45 48 47 43 44

42 45 43 46 46

45 47 46 47 45

43 47 45 47 46

44 43 44 46 47

The grouped frequency distribution is given by

Class interval midpoint frequency

45- 47 46 15

42 - 44 43 7

Cumulative grouped frequency distribution (type 3):

In cumulative frequency distribution the cumulative frequency column is added to the grouped frequency distribution so that we can get the cumulative grouped frequency distribution.

Class interval midpoint frequency Cumulative frequency

45- 47 46 15 22

42 - 44 43 7 7