Methods of data collection and presentation

Lecture Two
2.1. Methods of data Collections
 Before data collection, four important points should be considered.
They are:
 The purpose of data collection (why we need to collect data).
 The data to be collected (what kind of data to be collected).
 The source of data (where we can get the data).
 The methods of data collection (how can we collect this data).

 The method of data collection could vary according to the nature of

investigation and limitation in the availability of resource like
- Money,
- Time and Skilled human power.

 Within the available resource one has to be able to use an appropriate

method of collecting data.
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Continued…..
 Data can be collected in a variety of ways;
 One of the most common methods is through
the use of survey.

 Survey can also be done in different methods,

three of the most common methods are:
 Telephone survey,
 Mailed questionnaire and
 Personal interview.

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2.2. Source and types of data

There are two sources of data:

I. Primary Data
– Data measured or collect by the investigator or the
user directly from the source.
– Are original and first hand information.

– Data are termed primary when the reference is to

data collected for the first time by the investigator.
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Continued ….
– Two activities involved: planning and measuring.
• Planning:
– Identify source and elements of the data.
– Decide whether to consider sample or census.
– If sampling is preferred, decide on sample size, selection
method,… etc
– Decide measurement procedure.
– Set up the necessary organizational structure.
• Measuring: there are different options.
– Focus Group
– Telephone Interview
– Mail Questionnaires
– Door-to-Door Survey
– Personal Interview and
– Experiments are some of the sources for collecting the primary
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Continued …..
II. Secondary Data
– Data gathered or compiled from published and
unpublished sources or files.
– When our source is secondary data check that:
– The type and objective of the situations.
– The purpose for which the data are collected and
compatible with the present problem.
– The nature and classification of data is appropriate to our
problem.
– There are no biases and misreporting in the published
data.
• Note: Data which are primary for one may be
secondary for the other.
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2.3. Methods of data presentation
• The presentation of data is broadly classified in to
the following two categories:
– Tabular presentation
– Diagrammatic and Graphic presentation.

• The process of arranging data in to classes or

categories according to similarities technically is
called classification.

• Classification is a preliminary and it prepares the

ground for proper presentation of data.
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Frequency Distribution Table: Qualitative and quantitative FDs

Definitions:
• Raw data: recorded information in its original collected form,
• Frequency: is the number of values in a specific class of the distribution.
• Frequency distribution: is the organization of raw data in table form
using classes and frequencies.
– Specifically, it is a list of either qualitative or quantitative values that
a variable takes in a data set and the associated number of times
each value occurs (frequencies).
• The frequency distribution is the basic building block of statistical
analytical methods and the first step in analyzing survey data.
• It helps researchers
– (a) organize and summarize the survey data in a tabular format,
– (b) interpret the data, and
– (c) detect outliers (extreme values) in the survey data set.
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Absolute and Relative FDs

• Absolute Frequency measures how often a particular

value (of a variable) has been observed.
• Relative frequency measures how often a particular
value has been observed relative to the entire dataset,
• There are three basic types of frequency distributions
– Categorical frequency distribution
– Ungrouped frequency distribution
– Grouped frequency distribution

• There are specific procedures for constructing each

type.
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A) Categorical frequency Distribution

• Used for data that can be place in specific

categories such as nominal, or ordinal.
• e.g. marital status.

• Example: a social worker collected the

following data on marital status for 25
persons.
– (M=married, S=single, W=widowed, D=divorced)

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Continued ….
M S D W D
S S M M M
W D S M M
W D D S S
S W W D D

Solution:
 Since the data are categorical, discrete classes can be
used.
 There are four types of marital status M, S, D, and W.
 These types will be used as class for the distribution.
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Continued …
• Step 1: Make the table as follows
Class Tally Frequency Percent
(1) (2) (3) (4)
M
S
D
W

• Step 2: Tally the data and place the result in column (2).
• Step 3: Count the tally and place the result in column (3).
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Continued …..
• Step 4: Find the percentages of values in each
class by using;

– Where f= frequency of the class, n=total

number of value.
• Step 5: Find the total for column (3) and (4).

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Continued …..
• Combining the entire steps, one can construct
the following frequency distribution.
Class Tally Frequency Percent
(1) (2) (3) (4)
M ///// 6 24
S //// // 7 28
D //// // 7 28
W //// 5 20

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B) Ungrouped frequency Distribution:
• Is often constructed for small set or data on
discrete variable.
Constructing ungrouped frequency distribution:
– First find the smallest and largest raw score in the
collected data.

– Arrange the data in order of magnitude and count

the frequency.

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Continued….
• Example:
• The following data represent the mark of 20
students.
80 76 90 85 80
70 60 62 70 85
65 60 63 74 75
76 70 70 80 85

• Construct a frequency distribution, which is

ungrouped.
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Continued …..
Solution:
• Step 1: Find the range,
– Range=Max-Min=90-60=30.

• Step 2: Make a table as shown

• Step 3: Tally the data.

• Step 4: Compute the frequency.

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Continued….
Mark Tally Frequency
60 // 2
62 / 1
63 / 1
65 / 1
70 //// 4
74 / 1
75 // 2
76 / 1
80 /// 3
85 /// 3
90 / 1

Each individual value is presented separately,

 that is why it is named ungrouped fd.
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C) Grouped frequency Distribution:
• When the range of the data is large, the data must be grouped
in to classes that are more than one unit in width.
• Definitions:
– Grouped Frequency Distribution: a frequency distribution
when several numbers are grouped in one class.
– Class limits: Separates one class in a Gfd from another.
– The limits could actually appear in the data and have
gaps between the upper limits of one class and lower
limit of the next.
– Units of measurement (U): the distance between two possible
consecutive measures. It is usually taken as 1, 0.1, 0.01, 0.001,
-----.
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Continued….
• Class boundaries: Separates one class in a Gfd
from another.
– The boundaries have one more decimal places than the
row data and therefore do not appear in the data.
– There is no gaps between the upper boundary of one
class and lower boundary of the next class.
– The lower class boundary is found by subtracting U/2
from the corresponding lower class limit and
– The upper class boundary is found by adding U/2 to the
corresponding upper class limit.
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Continued…
• Class width: the difference between the upper and lower
class boundaries of any class.
– It is also the difference between the lower limits of any two
consecutive classes or
– the difference between any two consecutive class marks.

• Class mark (Mid points): it is the average of the lower and

upper CL or the average of upper and lower CB.
• Cumulative frequency: is the number of observations less
than/more than or equal to a specific value.
• Cumulative frequency above: it is the total frequency of all
values ≥ the LCB of a given class.
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Continued …..
• Cumulative frequency blow: it is the total frequency of all
values ≤ the UCB of a given class.
• Cumulative Frequency Distribution (CFD): it is the tabular
arrangement of class interval together with their
corresponding cumulative frequencies.
– It can be more than or less than type, depending on the type of
cumulative frequency used.
• Relative frequency (rf): it is class frequency divided by the
total frequency.
• Relative cumulative frequency (rcf): it is the cumulative
frequency divided by the total frequency.
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Guidelines for classes

• There should be between 5 and 20 classes.

• The classes must be mutually exclusive. This means that
no data value can fall into two different classes
• The classes must be all inclusive or exhaustive. This means
that all data values must be included.
• The classes must be continuous. There are no gaps in a
frequency distribution.
• The classes must be equal in width. The exception here is
the first or last class. It is possible to have an "below ..." or
"... and above" class. This is often used with ages.

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Continued …..
Example*:
• Construct a frequency distribution for the following
data.
11 29 6 33 14 31 22 27 19 20
18 17 22 38 23 21 26 34 39 27

• Solutions:
– Step 1: Find the highest and the lowest value H=39, L=6
– Step 2: Find the range; R=H-L=39-6=33
– Step 3: Select the number of classes desired using Sturgis
formula; 1+3.32log (n) and rounding up the result
=1+3.32log (20) =5.32=6(rounding up)
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Continued …..
– Step 4: Find the class width; w=R/k = 33/6=5.5=6
(rounding up)
– Step 5: Select the starting point, let it be the
minimum observation. Then continue adding w to
find the rest of the LCL
• 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36 are the lower class limits.

– Step 6: Find the upper class limit; e.g. the first upper
class=12-U=12-1=11 . Then continue adding w to
find the rest of the UCL
• 11, 17, 23, 29, 35, 41 are the upper class limits.
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Continued …
• So combining step 5 and step 6, one can construct
the following classes.
Class limits
6 – 11
12 – 17
18 – 23
24 – 29
30 – 35
36 – 41

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Continued….
– Step 7: Find the class boundaries;
E.g. for class 1 LCB=6-U/2=5.5
UCB =11 + U/2=11.5 Class
– Then continue adding w on both boundary
boundaries to obtain the rest
boundaries. 5.5 – 11.5
– By doing so one can obtain the 11.5 – 17.5
following classes. 17.5 – 23.5
– Step 8: Find Class Marks.
23.5 – 29.5
Class Mark = (LCLi + UCLi)/2 or
(LCBi + UCBi)/2 29.5 – 35.5
Then continue adding w to obtain the 35.5 – 41.5
rest class marks.
– Step 9: tally the data.
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Continued …
– Step 10: Write the numeric values for the tallies in the
frequency column.
– Step 11: Find cumulative frequency.
– Step 12: Find rf or/and rcf.
The complete frequency distribution follows:
Class Class Class Tally Freq Cf (b) Cf (abov) rf. rcf (below)
limit boundary Mark
6 – 11 5.5 – 11.5 8.5 // 2 2 20 0.10 0.10
12 – 17 11.5 – 17.5 14.5 // 2 4 18 0.10 0.20
18 – 23 17.5 – 23.5 20.5 ////// 7 11 16 0.35 0.55
24 – 29 23.5 – 29.5 26.5 //// 4 15 9 0.20 0.75
30 – 35 29.5 – 35.5 32.5 /// 3 18 5 0.15 0.90
36 – 41 35.5 – 41.5 38.5 // 2 20 2 0.10 1.00

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Diagrammatic and Graphic presentation of data.

• These are techniques for presenting data in visual

displays using geometric and pictures.
• Importance:
• They have greater attraction.
• They facilitate comparison.
• They are easily understandable.
• Diagrams are appropriate for presenting discrete data.
• The three most commonly used diagrammatic
presentation for discrete as well as qualitative data are:
• Pie charts
• Pictogram
• Bar charts
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Pie chart

• It is a circle that is divided in to sections or

wedges according to the percentage of
frequencies in each category of the
distribution.
• Percentage is obtained using:
*100
• The angle of the sector is obtained using:

*360

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Continued …
Example: Draw a suitable diagram to represent the
following population in a town.
Men Women Girls Boys
2500 2000 4000 1500

Solutions:
• Step 1: Find the percentage.
• Step 2: Find the number of degrees for each class.
• Step 3: Using a protractor and compass, graph
each section and write its name and
corresponding percentage.
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Continued ….
Class Frequency Percent Degree
Men 2500 25 90
Women 2000 20 72
Girls 4000 40 144
Boys 1500 15 54

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Pictogram
• We represent data by means of some picture /
symbols.
• We decide about a suitable picture to represent a
definite number of units in which the variable is
measured
• Example: The following table shows the orange production
in a plantation from production year 1990-1993. Represent
the data by a pictogram.

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Bar Charts:

• A set of bars (thick lines or narrow rectangles)

representing some magnitude over time space.

• They are useful for comparing aggregate over time space.

• Bars can be drawn either vertically or horizontally.

• There are different types of bar charts. The most common

being :
– Simple bar chart
– Component or sub divided bar chart.(Reading Asst)
– Multiple bar charts.
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Simple Bar Chart

• Are used to display data on one variable.

Example: The following data represent sale by
product, 1957- 1959 of a given company for
three products A, B, C
Product Sales($) Sales($) Sales($)
In 1957 In 1958 In 1959
A 12 14 18
B 24 21 18
C 24 35 54

• Construct Simple bar chart for the sales in the year

1957.
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Continued …

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Multiple Bar charts
• These are used to display data on more than one variable.
• They are used for comparing different variables at the same
time.
Example: Draw a Multiple bar chart to represent the sales by
product from 1957 to 1959.

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Graphical Presentation of data
 The histogram, frequency polygon and cumulative frequency graph(ogive)
are most commonly applied graphical representations for continuous data.

Procedures for constructing statistical graphs:

– Draw and label the X and Y axes.

– Choose a suitable scale for the frequencies or cumulative frequencies

and label it on the Y axes.
– Represent the class boundaries for the histogram or ogive or the mid
points for the frequency polygon on the X axes.
– Plot the points.

– Draw the bars or lines to connect the points

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Histogram

• A graph which displays the data by using vertical

bars of various height to represent frequencies.

• Class boundaries are placed along the horizontal

axes.

• Class marks and class limits are some times used

as quantity on the X axes.

Example: Construct a histogram to represent the

previous data (example *).
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Frequency Polygon:

• A line graph.

• The frequency is placed along the vertical axis and classes mid
points are placed along the horizontal axis.

• It is customer to the next higher and lower class interval with

corresponding frequency of zero, to make a complete
polygon.

• Example: Draw a frequency polygon for the above data

(example *).
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Continued….

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Ogive (cumulative frequency polygon)

• A graph showing the cumulative frequency (less than or more

than type) plotted against upper or lower class boundaries
respectively.

• CBs are plotted along the horizontal axis and the

corresponding cumulative frequencies are plotted along the
vertical axis.

• The points are joined by a free hand curve.

Example: Draw an ogive curve(less than type) for the above

data.(Example *)
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 Thank You

The End!!!
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Exercise

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