2.2.5 Cumulative frequency distribution tables
Cumulative frequency distribution is the fourth type of frequency distribution table. This type of frequency distribution can be used for ordinal or quantitative variables, especially when you want to understand how often observations fall below certain values.
For example, Company A sells 250 books in the first week, 150 books in the second week and 400 books in the third week. The cumulative number of books sold in the second week by Company A is 400 books (250 books in the first week + 150 books in the second week). The cumulative number in the third week is 800 books (250 books in the first week + 150 books in the second week + 400 books in the third week).
In the following activity, you will learn how to build a cumulative frequency distribution table in Excel.
Activity 5: How to make a cumulative frequency distribution table in Excel
In this activity, you will build a cumulative frequency distribution table using the grouped frequency distribution table in Activity 3. Once you have built the cumulative frequency distribution table, you can check your answer by clicking ‘Reveal discussion’ below.
Use the data from the grouped frequency distribution table from Activity 3 in the template provided in JC Electrics template file. This table consists of six columns. Column A is labelled Generators, Column B is labelled Class intervals, Column C is labelled Lower limit of class interval, Column D is labelled Upper limit of class interval and Column E is labelled Frequency. Column F considers the cumulative frequency. The cumulative frequency is calculated by adding each frequency from a frequency distribution table to the sum of its predecessors. The last value will always be equal to the total for all observations, since all frequencies will already have been added to the previous total. Therefore, the expected final answer is 24.
To calculate the cumulative frequency, in Cell F5 enter formula = =E5, this is the same value of the first frequency. Now, in Cell F6, to calculate the cumulative frequency, you will add the new frequency value to the previous one. In Cell F6, enter the formula =F5+E6. In Cell F7, the formula will be =F6+E7. Continue this step up to Cell F9.
- Check your answers in the Excel file: JC Electrics (solved).
- Optional: As further practice, you can now use the data for the other two products from JC Electrics 1 (Electric motors and Transformers) to identify the Cumulative frequency of products sold.
Discussion
A cumulative frequency table is used to determine the number of observations that lie above or below a certain value in a data set. Any error in the table may not reflect the reality of the data.
In the next section, you will learn how to draw histograms in Excel.
OpenLearn - Data analysis: visualisations in Excel 
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