Question

Define cumulative frequency distribution.

Answer 1

Cumulative frequency distribution is a table which displays the manner in which cumulative frequencies are distributed over various classes.

In a grouped frequency distribution the cumulative frequency of a class is the total of all frequencies upto and including that particular class. Make sure that, for calculating cumulative frequencies, the classes should be written in ascending order.

For example, the following table gives the cumulative frequency distribution of marks scored by 55 students in a test:

Cumulative frequency distributions are of two types, namely, less than and greater than or more than. For less than cumulative frequency distributions we add up the frequencies from the above and for greater than cumulative frequencies we add up the frequencies from below.