REASONS FOR USING FREQUENCY AND PERCENTAGE TO ANALYSE CATEGORICAL DATA

Abstract

Data analysis is fundamental to research because it transforms raw observations into meaningful information. When researchers work with categorical data, frequency and percentage are the most frequently employed descriptive statistical tools. Frequency indicates the number of times a response occurs, whereas percentage expresses the proportion of respondents represented by each category. These measures provide simple but powerful means of organizing, summarizing, comparing, and interpreting data. They are particularly useful for nominal and ordinal variables such as gender, occupation, religion, educational qualification, and Likert-scale responses. This paper discusses the major reasons for using frequency and percentage to analyse categorical data, emphasizing their contribution to interpretation, communication of findings, transparency, decision-making, and research quality.