Introduction to Statistics - Types of Data

8 important questions on Introduction to Statistics - Types of Data

Categorical (or qualitative or attribute) data consist of

names or labels that are not numbers representing counts or measurements.

During a year, a cow might yield an amount of milk that can be any value between 0 liters and 7000 liters. Would that be Discrete or Continues data?

Continues data, you can't count all the values between 0 and 7000 liters, it's infinite.

The nominal level of measurement is characterized by ...

data that consist of names, labels, or categories only. The data cannot be arranged in an ordering scheme (such as low to high).
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Name 3 examples of sample data at the nominal level of measurement.

  1. Yes/No/Undecided: Survey responses of yes, no, and undecided
  2. Political Party: The political party affiliations of survey respondents (Democrat, Republican, Independent, other)
  3. Social Security Numbers: Social Security numbers are just substitutes for names; they do not count or measure anything.

Data are at the ordinal level of measurement if ...

they can be arranged in some order, but differences (obtained by subtraction) between data values either cannot be determined or are meaningless.

Name 2 examples of sample data at the ordinal level of measurement.

  1. U.S. Grades (A/B/C/D/E/F); you know which comes first but you can't subtract each from another.
  2. Ranks (like in sports etc.)

Data are at the interval level of measurement if ...

they can be arranged in order, and differences between data values can be found and are meaningful. Data at this level do not have a natural zero starting point at which none of the quantity is present.

Name 2 examples of data at the ratio level of measurement.

  1. Car Lengths: Car lengths of 106 in. for a Smart car and 212 in. for a Mercury Grand Marquis (0 in. represents no length, and 212 in. is twice as long as 106 in.)
  2. Class Times: The times of 50 min and 100 min for a statistics class (0 min represents no class time, and 100 min is twice as long as 50 min.)

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