A two-way frequency table is commonly used to for displaying the two-way frequency distribution that arises when a group of individuals or things are categorised according to two criteria.

For example, the two-way table below displays the two-way frequency distribution that arises when 27 children are categorised according to hair type (straight or curly) and hair colour (red, brown, blonde, black).

The information in a two-way frequency table can also be displayed graphically using a side-by-side column graph.