Definition
Frequency table
A frequency table lists each value or category beside the number of times it occurs.
What it means
A frequency table answers “How many of each?” Put each possible value or category in one column and its count in another. Tallies can help while you collect the data, but the frequency is the finished count. Check your work by adding all the frequencies; the sum should equal the number of data items.
Remember it
Name it, count it, check the total.
Example
Twelve children name a favourite pet. The table records dog 6, cat 4, and fish 2. The frequencies add to 12, so every response has been counted once. The table also shows immediately that dog is the most frequent choice.
Watch for
A table of measurements is not a frequency table unless it also records how often each value, category, or interval occurs.
Common mix-up
Tally marks help collect counts; frequency is the final number for a category or value.
Exact meaning
A frequency table organizes data by listing distinct values, categories, or non-overlapping intervals and recording the frequency for each. Under its grouping rule, every observation is counted exactly once, and the frequencies add to the total number of observations.