Tally charts & tables
Tally charts and frequency tables
Statistics is all about gathering information to answer a question. In this unit you record what you find using a tally chart and a frequency table.
Asking a question
Statistics starts with a question, like 'What is your favourite drink?'. You gather answers from lots of people and record them so you can see the results clearly.
Tally charts
A tally chart is a quick way to collect data. You make one mark for each answer. The marks are grouped in fives ā the fifth mark goes across the other four. So a group of 5 and 2 more marks means 7.
Frequency tables
Once your tally chart is done, you can make a frequency table. A frequency table uses a number to show how many times something happens. It is easy to read because you do not have to count the tally marks each time. If 9 children chose milkshake, the frequency is 9.
Describing the data
You can use the totals to answer questions: ā¢ Add the frequencies to find how many people took part. ā¢ The biggest frequency is the most popular; the smallest is the least popular. ā¢ Two categories with the same frequency are liked by the same number of people.
Worked examples
Reading a tally
- A tally has one full group of 5 and 4 more marks.
- Add them: 5 + 4.
Answer: The total is 9.
Finding the total who took part
- A sports survey shows cricket 9, football 14, basketball 9, swimming 12, running 6.
- Add all the frequencies: 9 + 14 + 9 + 12 + 6.
Answer: 50 people took part in the survey.
Finding the most popular
- Look at the frequencies: cricket 9, football 14, basketball 9, swimming 12, running 6.
- The biggest number is 14.
Answer: Football is the most popular sport.
Where you see this in real life
- Counting how many of each animal are in a zoo.
- Finding out the favourite drink for a class party.
- Recording the results of flipping a coin.
Key words
- Data
- The information you gather to answer a question.
- Tally chart
- A chart that records data using marks grouped in fives.
- Tally marks
- Single marks, grouped in fives, used to count.
- Frequency
- The number of times something happens.
- Frequency table
- A table that uses numbers to show how often each thing happens.
- Survey
- Asking many people the same question to gather data.