{"id":291,"date":"2019-08-17T13:28:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-17T13:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analystprep.com\/cfa-level-1-exam\/?p=291"},"modified":"2026-02-27T19:39:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T19:39:52","slug":"relative-frequency-cumulative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analystprep.com\/cfa-level-1-exam\/quantitative-methods\/relative-frequency-cumulative\/","title":{"rendered":"The Relative Frequency And Cumulative Frequencies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">\n{\n  \"@context\": \"https:\/\/schema.org\",\n  \"@type\": \"VideoObject\",\n  \"name\": \"Statistical Concepts and Market Returns (2021 Level I CFA\u00ae Exam \u2013 Reading 7)\",\n  \"description\": \"This video lesson covers Statistical Concepts and Market Returns for CFA Level I. It explains key ideas like descriptive vs. inferential statistics, populations vs. samples, and measurement scales. You\u2019ll learn about central tendency, dispersion, skewness, and kurtosis\u2014foundational tools that help analysts summarize data, assess risk, and make informed financial decisions.\",\n  \"uploadDate\": \"2020-07-09T00:00:00+00:00\",\n  \"thumbnailUrl\": \"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/alD9eAT2lQU\/hqdefault.jpg\",\n  \"contentUrl\": \"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=alD9eAT2lQU\",\n  \"embedUrl\": \"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/alD9eAT2lQU\",\n  \"duration\": \"PT31M21S\"\n}\n<\/script>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/alD9eAT2lQU?si=OuhZn4beeC6mcCxR\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p>Relative frequency refers to the percentage of observations falling within a given class. It reveals the popularity of certain classes of data based on a sample. In other words, relative frequency tells us the number of times an event occurs <strong>relative<\/strong> to the <strong>total <\/strong>number of events. With reference to the example we used earlier in the introduction of the frequency distribution table, we could come up with the relative frequency for each interval using the formula:<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Relative frequency = Absolute frequency \/ Total frequency<\/p>\n<p>Total frequency is just the total number of observations.<\/p>\n<h2>Example 1: Relative Frequency<\/h2>\n<p>$$ \\begin{array}{c|c|c|c} \\textbf{Interval} &amp; \\textbf{Tally} &amp; \\textbf{Frequency} &amp; \\textbf{Relative Frequency} \\\\ \\hline -30\\% \\leq R_t \\leq -20\\% &amp; \\text{II} &amp; \\text{2} &amp; \\text{= 2\/25 = 8%} \\\\ -20\\% \\leq R_t \\leq -10\\% &amp; \\text{I} &amp; \\text{1} &amp; \\text{= 1\/25 = 4%} \\\\ -10\\% \\leq R_t \\leq 0\\% &amp; \\text{III} &amp; \\text{3} &amp; \\text{= 3\/25 = 12%} \\\\ 0\\% \\leq R_t \\leq 10\\% &amp; \\text{IIIIII} &amp; \\text{6} &amp; \\text{= 6\/25 = 24%} \\\\ 10\\% \\leq R_t \\leq 20\\% &amp; \\text{IIIIIII} &amp; \\text{7} &amp; \\text{= 7\/25 = 28%} \\\\ 20\\% \\leq R_t \\leq 30\\% &amp; \\text{IIIII} &amp; \\text{5} &amp; \\text{= 20\/25 = 8%} \\\\ 30\\% \\leq R_t \\leq 40\\% &amp; \\text{I} &amp; \\text{1} &amp; \\text{= 1\/25 = 4%} \\\\ \\textbf{Total} &amp; \\text{} &amp; \\textbf{25} &amp; \\text{= 25\/25 = 100%} \\\\ \\end{array} $$<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, we could come up with cumulative frequencies. The cumulative absolute frequency is the sum of the absolute frequencies up to and including the given interval. The cumulative relative frequency similarly sums up the relative frequencies up to and including the given relative frequency.<\/p>\n<h2>Example 2: Cumulative Frequencies<\/h2>\n<p>$$ \\begin{array}{c|c|c|c} \\textbf{Interval} &amp; \\textbf{Tally} &amp; \\textbf{Frequency} &amp; \\textbf{Relative Frequency} &amp; \\begin{array}{c} \\textbf{Cumulative absolute} \\\\ \\textbf{frequency} \\end{array} &amp; \\begin{array}{c} \\textbf{Cumulative relative} \\\\ \\textbf{frequency} \\end{array} \\\\ \\hline -30\\% \\leq R_t \\leq -20\\% &amp; \\text{II} &amp; \\text{2} &amp; \\text{= 2\/25 = 8%} &amp; 2 &amp; \\text{8%} \\\\ -20\\% \\leq R_t \\leq -10\\% &amp; \\text{I} &amp; \\text{1} &amp; \\text{= 1\/25 = 4%} &amp; 3 &amp; \\text{12%} \\\\ -10\\% \\leq R_t \\leq 0\\% &amp; \\text{III} &amp; \\text{3} &amp; \\text{= 3\/25 = 12%} &amp; 6 &amp; \\text{24%} \\\\ 0\\% \\leq R_t \\leq 10\\% &amp; \\text{IIIIII} &amp; \\text{6} &amp; \\text{= 6\/25 = 24%} &amp; 12 &amp; \\text{48%} \\\\ 10\\% \\leq R_t \\leq 20\\% &amp; \\text{IIIIIII} &amp; \\text{7} &amp; \\text{= 7\/25 = 28%} &amp; 19 &amp; \\text{76%} \\\\ 20\\% \\leq R_t \\leq 30\\% &amp; \\text{IIIII} &amp; \\text{5} &amp; \\text{= 20\/25 = 8%} &amp; 24 &amp; \\text{96%} \\\\ 30\\% \\leq R_t \\leq 40\\% &amp; \\text{I} &amp; \\text{1} &amp; \\text{= 1\/25 = 4%} &amp; 25 &amp; \\text{100%} \\\\ \\textbf{Total} &amp; \\text{} &amp; \\textbf{25} &amp; \\text{= 25\/25 = 100%} &amp; \\text{} &amp; \\text{} \\\\ \\end{array} $$<\/p>\n<div class=\"notes_inv\"><hr>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Relative frequency refers to the percentage of observations falling within a given class. It reveals the popularity of certain classes of data based on a sample. In other words, relative frequency tells us the number of times an event occurs&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-quantitative-methods","blog-post","no-post-thumbnail","animate"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Relative vs Cumulative Frequency | CFA Level 1<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Understand the difference between relative and cumulative frequency with examples. 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