Distribution

Frequency Distribution

The distribution of empirical data is called a frequency distribution and consists of a count of the number of occurences of each value. If the data are continuous, then a grouped frequency distribution is used. Typically, a distribution is portrayed using a frequency polygon or a histogram.

Mathematical equations are often used to define distributions. The normal distribution is, perhaps, the best known example. Many empirical distributions are approximated well by mathematical distributions such as the normal distribution.