The character frequency data listed below was obtained from a corpus of 139 million words (as of Sep. 1998). The frequency figures are presented in two tables: one in descending frequency order, the other in alphabetical order. I have not included short vowels and diacritics in the count—their frequency is closely tied to the genre one chooses to survey. I have also excluded non-standard characters such as the 3-dotted versions of baa', jiim and faa', and the Persian gaaf—their frequency depends too much on the software/hardware being used to author the electronic text.

Frequency Table

Character	Description	Percent	Chances of Occurrence
	alif	17.14	1 in 5.83 letters
	laam	11.77	1 in 8.49 letters
	yaa'	7.60	1 in 13.14 letters
	miim	6.18	1 in 16.17 letters
	waaw	5.44	1 in 18.37 letters
	nuun	5.14	1 in 19.45 letters
	raa'	4.66	1 in 21.43 letters
	taa'	4.49	1 in 22.23 letters
	baa'	3.35	1 in 29.76 letters
	'ayn	3.34	1 in 29.88 letters
	taa' marbuuTa	3.18	1 in 31.40 letters
	daal	3.11	1 in 32.07 letters
	faa'	2.56	1 in 39.00 letters
	siin	2.53	1 in 39.46 letters
	haa'	2.50	1 in 39.92 letters
	qaaf	2.13	1 in 46.74 letters
	kaaf	1.85	1 in 53.97 letters
	Haa'	1.79	1 in 55.78 letters
	jiim	1.35	1 in 74.07 letters
	Saad	0.96	1 in 103.50 letters
	hamza-on-alif	0.96	1 in 103.63 letters
	Taa'	0.95	1 in 105.11 letters
	shiin	0.91	1 in 109.04 letters
	alif maqSuura	0.91	1 in 109.83 letters
	xaa'	0.80	1 in 124.83 letters
	dhaal	0.67	1 in 149.02 letters
	Daad	0.65	1 in 152.17 letters
	zaa'	0.64	1 in 155.91 letters
	thaa'	0.53	1 in 186.68 letters
	hamza-on-yaa'	0.45	1 in 219.85 letters
	ghayn	0.36	1 in 273.22 letters
	hamza-on-the-line	0.33	1 in 298.96 letters
	Zaa'	0.20	1 in 488.68 letters
	hamza-under-alif	0.18	1 in 537.54 letters
	hamza-on-waaw	0.14	1 in 708.38 letters
	madda-on-alif	0.09	1 in 1021.44 letters

Alphabetical Table

Character	Description	Percent	Chances of Occurrence
	hamza-on-the-line	0.33	1 in 298.96 letters
	madda-on-alif	0.09	1 in 1021.44 letters
	hamza-on-alif	0.96	1 in 103.63 letters