🎲intro to statistics review

Contingency table

Written by the Fiveable Content Team • Last updated September 2025
Written by the Fiveable Content Team • Last updated September 2025

Definition

A contingency table, also known as a cross-tabulation or crosstab, is a type of table in a matrix format that displays the frequency distribution of variables. It is commonly used to analyze the relationship between two categorical variables.

5 Must Know Facts For Your Next Test

  1. A contingency table helps in determining if there is an association between two categorical variables.
  2. The structure of a contingency table includes rows and columns representing different categories of the variables being analyzed.
  3. The Chi-Square Test of Independence is often used with contingency tables to test for statistical independence between the variables.
  4. Each cell in a contingency table represents the frequency count of occurrences for specific combinations of the variables' categories.
  5. Marginal totals, located at the margins (end) of rows and columns, provide the total counts for each category.

Review Questions

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