Häufigkeitsstatistik

Häufigkeitsstatistik, also known as frequency statistics, is a branch of descriptive statistics that deals with the counting and summarizing of occurrences of data values within a dataset. It provides a fundamental understanding of how often specific outcomes or categories appear. The core concept is to tabulate the number of times each distinct value or range of values is observed. This is often presented in a frequency table, which lists the values and their corresponding counts, or relative frequencies (percentages).

Frequency statistics are crucial for initial data exploration. They help identify the most common and least common data points, reveal patterns, and can highlight outliers. For example, in a survey about favorite colors, a frequency statistic would show how many people chose red, how many chose blue, and so on. This information can then be visualized using bar charts or pie charts, making the distribution of responses easily understandable.

Beyond simple counts, frequency statistics can be extended to include cumulative frequencies, which show the total count of observations up to a certain value. This is particularly useful for understanding positional measures like medians and percentiles. In essence, Häufigkeitsstatistik forms the bedrock for more complex statistical analyses by organizing and summarizing raw data into a more interpretable format, laying the groundwork for drawing meaningful conclusions about the data's distribution.