Frequency Distribution Table Generator
Build a sorted frequency table from raw data, showing relative and cumulative frequency for each distinct value automatically.
Frequency Distribution Table Generator
Build a sorted frequency table from raw data, showing relative and cumulative frequency for each distinct value automatically.
Enter values and compute the result.
A frequency table organizes a list of numbers by showing how often each distinct value appears, along with its share of the whole and a running total. This frequency table calculator sorts your values, counts each one, and returns a table with four columns — Value, Frequency, Relative Frequency, and Cumulative Frequency — plus a total count of all the values you entered.
How to use this calculator
- Type your numbers into the values box, separated by commas, spaces, or new
lines (for example,
1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5). - The calculator sorts the values from smallest to largest and groups identical ones together.
- Read across each row to see the value, how many times it occurs, its relative frequency (its proportion of the total), and the cumulative frequency (the running total of counts down to that row).
- Check the Total Values figure to confirm the calculator read every number you entered.
Worked example
Take the data set 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5 — 10 values in all, so the total
is 10. Counting each distinct value and building the running total gives:
| Value | Frequency | Relative Frequency | Cumulative Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 0.1 | 1 |
| 2 | 2 | 0.2 | 3 |
| 3 | 4 | 0.4 | 7 |
| 4 | 2 | 0.2 | 9 |
| 5 | 1 | 0.1 | 10 |
Each column answers a different question:
frequency = how many times a value appears
relative frequency = frequency / total (here, each frequency / 10)
cumulative frequency = running sum of frequencies down the rows
The value 3 appears 4 times, so its relative frequency is 4 / 10 = 0.4, which
you can read as the proportion 0.4 or 40%. The cumulative frequency column adds
the counts row by row — 1, then 1 + 2 = 3, then 3 + 4 = 7, and so on — ending at
10, the total count. For the conventions behind grouping data this way, see the
NIST/SEMATECH e-Handbook on histograms and frequency distributions.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between frequency and relative frequency?
Frequency is the raw count of how many times a value appears, while a relative frequency table expresses that count as a proportion of the total (frequency divided by the number of values). Relative frequency lets you compare data sets of different sizes on the same scale.
What is cumulative frequency used for?
Cumulative frequency is a running total of the counts, so each row tells you how many values fall at or below that point. It makes it easy to answer questions like “how many values are 3 or less?” and to find medians, quartiles, and percentiles.
How do I build a frequency distribution table by hand?
List every distinct value in order from smallest to largest, tally how many times each one occurs to get its frequency, divide each frequency by the total for the relative frequency, then add the frequencies down the column to fill in the cumulative frequency.