A method for determining data signal jitter via asynchronous sampling provides a low cost and production-integrable mechanism for measuring data signal jitter. The data signal is edge-detected and sampled by a sampling clock of unrelated frequency the sampled values are collected in a histogram according to a folding of the samples around a timebase. The timebase is determined by sweeping to detect a minimum jitter for the folded data. The histogram for the correct estimated timebase period is representative of the probability density function of the location of data signal edges and the jitter characteristics are determined by the width and shape of the density function peaks. Frequency drift can be corrected by adjusting the timebase used to fold the data across the sample set.