8 Types of Data
Categorical Data (also called Qualitative)
- puts people into a category (e.g. marital status, live with parents? Yes or No)
- often results from counting something
- calculate the proportion belonging to each category, but do NOT do numerical calculations
Quantitative Data: (always numeric)
- often results from measuring something (e.g. height, weight, income, age)
- makes sense to do numerical calculations such as finding the average
These can be subdivided:
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Categorical |
Quantitative |
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Nominal |
Ordinal |
Interval |
Ratio |
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No numerical interpretation Favourite Colour Can be numeric – student numbers have no meaning. |
Rank your experience from 1 to 5 Is the difference between 4 and 5 the same as between 3 and 4? Likert Scales |
Numerical 0 has no meaning Division makes no sense Temperature |
The highest form! 0 has meaning, so division makes sense Profit Sales |
