Refer to the example below.
a. A joint relative frequency in a two-way relative frequency table tells you what portion of the entire data set falls into the intersection of a particular value of one variable and a particular value of the other variable. For example, the joint relative frequency of students surveyed who are girls and prefer dogs as pets is 0.2, or 20%. What is the joint relative frequency of students surveyed who are boys and prefer cats as pets?
b. A marginal relative frequency in a two-way relative frequency table tells you what portion of the entire data set represents a particular value of just one of the variables. For example, the marginal relative frequency of students surveyed who prefer dogs as pets is 0.45, or 45%. What is the marginal relative frequency of students surveyed who are girls?
Example:
Create a two-way relative frequency table for Jenna's data.
A Divide each number in the two-way frequency table from the previous example by the grand total. Write the quotients as decimals.
Preferred Gender / Pet Girl Boy Total Pog 408=0.24018=0.45 Cat Other Total 4040=1
B Check by adding the joint relative frequencies in a row or column to see if the sum equals the row or column's marginal relative frequency.
Girl row: 0.2++=
Boy row: ++=
Dog column: 0.2+=0.45
Cat column: +=
Other column: +=