TYPES OF DATA

TYPES OF DATA

1. TYPES OF VARIABLES

   • QUALITATIVE
     • Qualitative data arise when the observations fall into separate distinct categories.
       • EXAMPLES
         • Colour of eyes : blue, green, brown etc Exam result : pass or fail Socio-economic status : low, middle or high.
       • CLASSIFICATION
         • ordinal if an ordering exists (eg exam results, socio-economic status).
         • Nominal if there is no natural order between the categories (eg eye colour)
   • QUANTITATIVE
     • Quantitative or numerical data arise when the observations are counts or measurements. The data are said to be discrete if the measurements are integers and continuous if the measurements can take on any value, usually within some range
       • EXAMPLES
         • Quantities such as sex and weight are called variables, because the value of these quantities vary from one observation to another. Numbers calculated to describe important features of the data are called statistics. For example, (i) the proportion of females, and (ii) the average age of unemployed persons, in a sample of residents of a town are statistics.

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