ECON-1103: Descriptive Statistics

(Representing Data: Sheet- 02)

Pinke Rani Dey

Lecturer
Department Of Economics
Rabindra University, Bangladesh
 What does the term “DATA” mean?
• Data means a piece of information. In details, data are the facts and figures that are
collected, analyzed and summarized for presentation and interpretation. Together, the data
collected in a particular study are referred to as the data set for the study.

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 What does the term “DATA” mean?...
• Qualitative data: Qualitative data in statistics is also
known as categorical data- that can be arranged
categorically based on the attributes and properties of a
thing or a phenomenon.
• Quantitative data: Quantitative data is data that can be
counted or measured in numerical values.
• Discrete data: Discrete data is a count that involves
integers.
• Continuous data: Continuous data is data that can take any
values (integers as well as fractions).
 Summarizing Qualitative Data

Qualitative Data

Tabular Methods Graphical Methods

 Summarizing Qualitative Data…

• Tabular Method:
Frequency: Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time.
Frequency Distribution: A frequency distribution is a tabular summary of data showing the
number (frequency) in each of several non-overlapping classes.

Example: Let us use the following example to demonstrate the construction and
interpretation of a frequency distribution for qualitative data. Let Coke, Sprite, 7up, RC,
Mountain Dew are the five top selling soft drinks. Assume that the data in the following table
show the soft drink selected for a sample of 50 soft drink purchases.

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 Summarizing Qualitative Data…

To develop a frequency distribution for these data, we count the number of times each
soft drink appears in above table. Suppose, Coke appears 19 times, Mountain Dew
appears 8 times, RC appears 5 times, Sprite appears 13 times and 7up appears 5 times.
These counts are summarized in the frequency distribution in the following table:
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 Summarizing Qualitative Data…

The frequency distribution provides a summary of how the 50 soft drink purchases are
distributed across the five soft drinks. Viewing the frequency distribution, we see that Coke is
the leader, Sprite is second, Mountain Dew is third and 7up & RC are tied for fourth. The
frequency distribution has provided information about the relative popularity of the five best
selling soft drinks. Coke is the most popular soft drinks.
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 Summarizing Qualitative Data…
Relative Frequency and Percent Frequency Distribution:
The relative frequency of a class is the fraction or proportion of items belonging to a class. For
a data set with N observations, the relative frequency of each class is as follows:

Relative frequency of a class = (Frequency of the class)/N

The percent frequency of a class is the relative frequency multiplied by 100.

A relative frequency distribution is a tabular summary of data showing the relative
frequency for each class.
A percent frequency distribution is a tabular summary of data showing the percent
frequency for each class.

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 Summarizing Qualitative Data…

In the table, we see that the relative frequency for coke is 19/50= 0.38, the relative frequency
for sprite is 13/50= 0.26 and so on. From the percent frequency distribution, we see that 38%
of the purchases were coke, 26% of the purchases were sprite and so on. We can also note that
38%+26%+16%= 80% of the purchases were of the top three soft drinks.
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 Summarizing Qualitative Data…
• Graphical method:
➢Bar Diagram: A bar graph is a graphical device for depicting data that have been
summarized in a frequency, relative frequency or percent frequency distribution. On one axis
of the graphs (usually the horizontal axis) we specify the labels that are used for the classes
(categories of data). A frequency, relative frequency or percent frequency scale can be used
of the other axis of the graph (usually the vertical axis).

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 Summarizing Qualitative Data…

Bar Diagram Vertical Bar Diagram of Soft Drinks

Purchase
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Vertical Bar Diagram 18 19

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Horizontal Bar 14

Frequency
Diagram 12 13

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Component Bar 8
8
Diagram 6

4 5 5

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Multiple Bar Chart
0
Coke Sprite 7up RC Mountain
Dew

Soft Drinks
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 Summarizing Qualitative Data…
➢Pie Diagram: The pie chart is another graphical device for presenting relative frequency
and percent frequency distributions. To construct a pie chart we first draw a circle to
represent all of the data. Then we use the relative frequencies to subdivide the circles into
sectors or parts that correspond to the relative frequency for each class.

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Summarizing Qualitative Data…
Pie Diagram of Soft Drink Purchase

Mountain Dew
16%

RC Coke
10% 38%

7up
10%
Sprite
26%

Coke Sprite 7up RC Mountain Dew

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