Advantages and Disadvantages of Frequency Distributions - All Things Statistics (2024)

A frequency distribution divides observations into the data set into conveniently established, numerically ordered classes (groups or categories). The number of observations in each class is referred to as frequency.

A few examples of instances where frequency distributions would be useful are:

  1. A marketing manager wants to know how many units (and what proportions or percentage) of each product sells in a particular region during a given period.
  2. A professor wants to organize the marks obtained by a class of 500 students in a freshman calculus course. The data can be easily expressed in the form of a frequency distribution table.

We now list out some of the advantages and disadvantages of frequency distributions and frequency distribution tables.

Advantages of Frequency Distribution:

  1. The data are expressed in a more compact form. One can get a deeper insight into the salient characteristics of the data at the very first glance.
  2. One can quickly note the pattern of distribution of observations falling into various classes.
  3. It permits the use of more complex statistical techniques which help reveal certain other obscure and hidden characteristics of the data.
  4. The frequency distribution table can be used to construct histograms, bar graphs, and other diagrams which can help us in visualizing the data.
  5. We can use the frequency table to calculate various descriptive measures of the data such as the mean, median, mode, standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis.

Disadvantages of Frequency Distribution:

  1. In the process of grouping, individual observations lose their identity. It becomes difficult to notice how the observations contained in each class are distributed. This applies more to a frequency distribution that uses the tally method in its construction.
  2. A serious limitation inherent in this kind of grouping is that there will be too much clustering of observations in various classes in case the number of classes is too small. This will cause some of the essential information to remain unexposed. Hence, it is important that summarizing data should not be at the cost of losing essential details. The purpose should be to seek an appropriate compromise between having too many details or too few.

References:

Fundamentals of Business Statistics – JK Sharma

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Advantages and Disadvantages of Frequency Distributions - All Things Statistics (2024)

FAQs

What are the disadvantages of frequency distribution in statistics? ›

i) It leads to loss of information as the data is grouped and the frequencies are mentioned. The exact values of the observations are not known. ii) Sometimes, the grouped frequency distribution includes open-end intervals that make it unfit for calculating some descriptive statistics.

What are two advantages of frequency distribution? ›

Advantages of Frequency distribution: With frequency distribution the data will be in the most understandable form. The range of the data can be determined easily. We can be able to determine the data distribution.

What are 2 reasons why frequency distributions are useful in measurement? ›

[1] It allows the researcher to have a glance at the entire data conveniently. It shows whether the observations are high or low and also whether they are concentrated in one area or spread out across the entire scale.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using a grouped frequency distribution table? ›

Grouped frequency tables can be very useful when we are working with large data sets or with data sets with a large range of values. A grouped frequency table is a manageable way of representing the data. However, the disadvantage of grouped frequency tables is that we cannot extract the original data values from them.

Which of the following is a limitation of frequency distribution? ›

Ans: One limitation of using frequency distribution is it loses the information about individual data. As we cannot have clarity about the values and how they are distributed in one data set?

What are the disadvantages of frequency analysis? ›

Loss of time information: When analyzing signals in the frequency domain, the time information is lost. This can be a disadvantage if the temporal characteristics of the signal are important for the analysis or interpretation.

What are the advantages of frequency table in statistics? ›

A frequency table shows the distribution of observations based on the options in a variable. Frequency tables are helpful to understand which options occur more or less often in the dataset. This is helpful for getting a better understanding of each variable and deciding if variables need to be recoded or not.

What is the main purpose of a frequency distribution? ›

As a statistical tool, a frequency distribution provides a visual representation of the distribution of observations within a particular test. Analysts often use a frequency distribution to visualize or illustrate the data collected in a sample.

What is unique about frequency distribution? ›

A frequency distribution is helpful because it allows you to quickly understand the distribution of the data, including which data values are most and least common and whether there are outliers. It is also possible to quickly find the mode of the data since it will be the data value(s) with the greatest frequency.

What are some benefits of using data sets using frequency distributions? ›

What are some benefits of representing data sets using frequency​ distributions? By organizing data into a frequency​ distribution, it becomes easier to see where the observations are​ concentrated, making patterns easier to determine.

What is the disadvantage of ungrouped frequency distribution? ›

Disadvantages of Ungrouped Data

Difficult to identify patterns or trends in the data. Not suitable for statistical analysis, as it does not have class intervals or frequency distributions. No specific method of presentation, making it difficult to communicate the data effectively.

What are the advantages of relative frequency distribution? ›

Relative frequency can help you compare the frequencies of different values or categories across data sets that have different sizes or scales. It can also help you visualize the distribution of data in a pie chart or a relative frequency histogram.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of frequency histograms versus frequency distributions? ›

Frequency histograms provide a way to graphically organize and represent data. Frequency distributions only display data numerically. ​ However, frequency distributions are required to make frequency​ histograms, making the histograms require more work to create.

What are the disadvantages of frequency measurement? ›

One disadvantage of frequency measurement is that it can be time consuming. This is because accurately measuring the frequency of a wave requires multiple measurements over a period of time. Another disadvantage is that it can be unreliable, especially if there is interference or noise in the signal being measured.

What are the disadvantages of frequency response? ›

Disadvantages of frequency response

The result in the cases of non-linear systems or the system with moderate non-linearity does not show the exact results. Hence, it is generally applied only to linear systems. The practical method to obtain the frequency response is time-consuming.

What is the limitation of frequency? ›

The limiting frequency of occurrence of an event A is then assigned the probability P(A). In simple terms, this means that if we perform a repeatable experiment, then the probability will be the frequency of the outcome.

What are the disadvantages of frequency domain approach? ›

Disadvantages of Frequency Domain Methods

The methods which are considered for obtaining frequency domain are outdated as compared to extensive methods developed for modelling and digital computer simulation. Frequency domain methods are basically applied to linear systems.

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