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How to Calculate Cumulative Frequency table in Excel?

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Cumulative Frequency is the running total of frequencies starting from the very first frequency up to the last frequency. If we simplify the term running total, we can say the first frequency is added with the second frequency and then their sum is added to the third frequency and the same sequence goes on. Suppose we have a frequency table given as:

Fruits Frequency

Apple

12

Banana

18

Cherry

45

Fig

5

Orange

6

Then, the cumulative frequency of each of these fruits is calculated as:

Fruits

Frequency

Cumulative Frequency

Apple

12

12

Banana

18

12 + 18 = 30

Cherry

45

30 + 45 = 75

Fig

5

75 + 5 = 80

Orange

6

80 + 6 = 86

In the first row, cumulative frequency is equal to the individual frequency i.e., 12. Now, for the second row, cumulative frequency is equal to the frequency in the first row added to the frequency in the second row i.e., 12+18=30. For the third row, we add the sum in the second row to the frequency in the third row, i.e., 30+45=75 and the same goes on for all the rows further to the last row. In this article, we are going to learn about calculating the cumulative frequency for distribution using Microsoft Excel.

As we have seen from the above explanation, cumulative frequency is actually the running total and involves addition operation. We will be using the SUM() function available in Microsoft Excel.

Syntax:

=SUM(num1, num2…)

Here, num1 represents the first number in your cell to add, here you can specify it up to 255 numbers and num2 represents the Optional field, here you can add up to 255 numbers.

Step 1: For the first element we can input the formula as =SUM($B$2:B2), as the first frequency is the same as it is.

USe-the-sum-formula-for-Cumulative-frequency

Step 2: For the second element, we input the formula as =SUM($B$2:B3), as the cumulative frequency will be the sum of elements in the B2 and B3 cells.

Finding-cumulative-frequency-for-second-element

Step 3: For the third element, we input the formula as =SUM($B$2:B4), as the cumulative frequency will be the sum of elements from the B2 to B4 cell.

Cumulative-frequency-for-third-element

Step 4: Now, we can use the auto-fill feature of Excel to populate the cumulative frequency of all the remaining cells. We just need to move the cursor to the corner of the B4 cell so that it turns into a plus symbol (+) and then drag the cell to the last element in the array.

Use-the-auto-fill-feature-to-populate-the-cumulative-frequency

So this is how we calculate cumulative frequency in Excel.


Last Updated : 21 Mar, 2022
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