Absolute Frequency

Absolute frequency is a statistical term describing the number of times a particular piece of data, or value, appears during a trial or set of trials. Essentially, it is the number of times a particular thing happens. If each relative frequency is added up for the entire trial, the total of all of the relative frequencies will equal the total number of pieces of data or observations collected during the trial.

The absolute frequency is the number of times a given value appears in the data collected during a trial. For example, if a room of 50 accountants is asked how many glasses of wine they have had over the past week, each of the 50 accountants would give their answer. The numbers might look like 0, 4, 6, 2, 4, 4, 0, 1, 2, etc. Of the 50 observations, there would be a certain number of "4" answers, a certain number of "0" answers, and so on. The number of times an accountant answered "4" would be the absolute frequency of "4." It is the number of times the number 4 appeared in the data set. The number of times an accountant answered "0" would the absolute frequency of "0." It is the number of times the number 0 appeared in the data set.