A variable length coding method and apparatus is provided. The variable length coding method includes the steps of analyzing the occurrence statistics of symbols with respect to previous frames, generating a mapping table for variably mapping input symbols to bit patterns based on the analyzed occurrence statistics of the input symbols, resetting the mapping relationship between symbols and bit patterns based on the generated mapping table, and variable length coding a current frame based on the reset mapping relationship. The variable length coding method efficiently reduces the number of bits generated by dynamically varying the mapping between input symbols and bit patterns depending on the occurrence statistics of the input symbols. Moreover, the variable length coding method performs variable length coding taking into account the occurrence statistics of symbols with respect to an image frame, thereby steadily performing the variable length coding regardless of changes in the statistical characteristics or coding parameters of an image. |