A method of encoding transform coefficients and a transform coefficient encoding apparatus, and a method of decoding transform coefficients and a transform coefficient decoding apparatus are provided. The method of encoding the transform coefficients includes reading transform coefficients in a current block, determining whether a first transform coefficient having an absolute value greater than a predetermined threshold value exists in the transform coefficients in the current block, generating first flag information indicating whether the first transform coefficient exists, dividing the first transform coefficient from information of a second transform coefficient that is remaining transform coefficients excluding the first transform coefficient, and encoding the first transform coefficients and the second transform coefficients separately, thereby more efficiently using a correlation between each of the transform coefficients.