AGR 207: Dr.

Kato Samuel Namuene

Google Classroom Code: ar5eb9a

I. Statistics

3.2.1.1 Grouped Data

A common way of handling quantitative data is to subdivide the full range of values into a few sub-
ranges or classes, and then record the frequency of observations falling in each range. The sub-ranges
must not overlap and must cover the entire range of the data set. E.g. you can group fish with respect to
their ages, to better estimate their food requirements by grouping them in weeks, months or years. Each
of those groups is called a class.

i. Determine the number of groups.

In grouped data, most of the data has between five to 10 classes. You decide the number of groups for
your data.

ii. Class Interval (Class width or Class Size)

Class interval is the range of each group of data or class and it is always a whole number. Class width
simply means number of values per group. The ends of a class interval are called class limits. The lowest
number in a class interval is called the lower limit and the highest number is called the upper limit, hence
the upper limit of one class is the lower limit of the following class. Class Interval is calculated as follows:

Highest value − Liwest value

𝐶𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝐼𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑎𝑙 =
Number of classes desired
The values of the lower limits of each class should be multiples of each. E.g., if the lower limit of the
first class is 5, then the lower limits of the grouped data should start at 5, 10, 15, 20 etc. The number of
classes is not absolute so, it is not wrong to have more classes than the original estimated number.

iv. Construct Frequency Table for Grouped Data

Consider the following data:
An agricultural economist insists there should be maximum 30 tomatoes per packaging to improve
durability and boost sales. She inspects each package by counting, and had the following raw data:

29 44 29 35 29 41 19 49 32 29
43 28 33 32 35 40 37 47 30 44
29 29 30 31 47 9 46 34 29 29
30

To construct a frequency table for this set of data values with 6 classes:
1
Step 1:
Arrange the data from lowest to highest:
9 19 28 29 29 29 29 29 29 29 29 30 30 30 31
32 32 33 34 35 35 37 40 41 43 44 44 46 47 47
49

Step 2:
Calculate the class interval.
CD E D
𝐶𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝐼𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑎𝑙 = C
= 10

If the class interval is a decimal, approximate to the nearest whole number

Construct a table with three columns, and then write the data groups or class intervals in the first
column. Since we have 10 as our class interval, the lower limits will be; 0, 10, 20, 30, and 40 to include
all of the data. Note that in fact we need 5 groups (1 more than we first thought).

Class Interval Tally Frequency

0 to 9

10 to 19

20 to 29

30 to 39

40 to 49

Step 3:
Go through the list of data values. For the first data value in the list, 9, place a tally mark against the
group 0 - 9 in the second column. For the second data value in the list, 19, place a tally mark against the
group 10 - 19 in the second column. For the third data value in the list, 28, place a tally mark against the
group 20 - 29 in the second column. Continue this process until all of the data values in the set are tallied.

Class Interval Tally Frequency

0 to 9 |

10 to 19 |

20 to 29 |||| ||||

30 to 39 |||| |||| |

40 to 49 |||| ||||

2
Step 4:
Count the number of tally marks for each group and write it in the third column. The finished frequency
table is as follows:

Class Interval Tally Frequency

0 to 9 | 1
10 to 19 | 1
20 to 29 |||| |||| 9
30 to 39 |||| |||| | 11
40 to 49 |||| |||| 9
Total 31

Step 5:
The final table to present will be;
Class Interval Frequency
0 to 9 1
10 to 19 1
20 to 29 9
30 to 39 11
40 to 49 9

Total 31

Exercise 2
The following table illustrates the number of stem borers on maize plants in 20 plots. Create the grouped
frequency distribution table with 5 classes.

33 22 22 5 7 31 12 15 38 37
4 9 25 27 20 14 19 33 25 10