Class 9 Statistics – Introduction
Statistics is the branch of mathematics that deals with collecting, organizing, representing, analyzing
and interpreting data.
1. What is Data?
Data means a collection of facts, figures or information. Example: 25, 30, 18, 40, 35 are the marks of
five students and form a set of data.
2. Types of Data
Primary Data: Data collected directly by the investigator for a specific purpose.
Example: A teacher asks students for their heights and records them.
Secondary Data: Data already collected by someone else and used by us.
Example: Population data taken from a government report or census report.
3. Representation of Data
After collecting data, we organize and present it so that it is easy to understand. A common method is a
frequency distribution table.
Frequency tells us how many times a value occurs.
Value Frequency
2 3
3 2
4 1
4. Frequency Distribution Tables
A. Ungrouped Frequency Distribution: Individual values are given along with their frequencies.
Marks Frequency
10 2
15 3
20 4
25 1
B. Grouped Frequency Distribution: Data is divided into class intervals.
Marks Frequency
0–10 3
10–20 5
20–30 8
30–40 4
5. Types of Class Intervals
A. Exclusive / Continuous Class Intervals: The upper limit of one class is the lower limit of the next
class.
Example: 0–10, 10–20, 20–30, 30–40.
The class 0–10 includes values from 0 up to, but not including, 10; 10 belongs to the next class.
B. Inclusive / Discontinuous Class Intervals: Both the lower and upper limits are included.
Example: 1–10, 11–20, 21–30, 31–40.
For continuous representation, the class boundaries can be 0.5–10.5, 10.5–20.5, 20.5–30.5, etc.
6. Interpretation of Data – Measures of Central Tendency
To understand what the data tells us, we use measures of central tendency. The three important
measures are Mean, Median and Mode.
Mean
Mean is the average of the observations.
Mean = Sum of observations ÷ Number of observations
Example: For 10, 20, 30, Mean = (10 + 20 + 30) ÷ 3 = 20.
Median
Median is the middle value when the data is arranged in ascending or descending order. Example: 10,
15, 20, 25, 30 → Median = 20.
Mode
Mode is the value that occurs most frequently. Example: 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 3, 6 → Mode = 3.
7. Range
Range tells us about the spread of the data.
Range = Maximum value − Minimum value
Example: Data = 5, 8, 12, 15, 20. Maximum = 20, Minimum = 5, therefore Range = 20 − 5 = 15.
For grouped frequency distributions, the range is determined from the first and last class limits or
boundaries, according to how the classes are represented.
8. Complete Flow of Class 9 Statistics
DATA Collect the data
Types of data Primary / Secondary
Organize data Frequency distribution
Frequency distribution Ungrouped / Grouped
Grouped data Exclusive (Continuous) / Inclusive (Discontinuous)
Represent data Tables and other suitable forms
Interpret data Mean / Median / Mode
Measure of spread Range
Key idea: Statistics is the study of data—collecting it, organizing it, representing it, interpreting it, and
drawing meaningful conclusions from it.