Categorical data

Project Maths: Strand 1 - Probability and Statistics
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Statistics - Types of data – Categorical Data

Types of data – Categorical Data

TYPE
NOMINAL
ORDINAL

DESCRIPTION
Can be identified by particular names or categories and cannot be
organised according to any natural order
Data which looks like numbers but are really just labels, they can be
identified by categories which can be ordered in some way

EXAMPLE
Gender: Male or female Hair Colour: black, blonde etc., Favourite Sport:
Soccer, rugby
ISBN Numbers, Visa card no., Watching TV: Never, Rarely, Sometimes, A
lot

GRAPHICAL REPRESENTATION
Bar chart, Line plot, Pie chart
Bar chart, Line plot, Pie chart

NOMINAL DATA

* In everyday life, to nominate someone is to name them, possibly putting
their name forward for a position of responsibility, e.g. "I nominate Chris
to be class captain."

* In mathematics nominal data is names or words, e.g. the colours of a
rainbow are written as words: red, orange, yellow and purple.

* Where the data being looked at is not a name it is not nominal data,
e.g. the ages of students in a class are written as numbers: 13, 14, 15 and
16.

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