Data and Types of Data

Data can be defined as a systematic record of a

particular quantity. It is the different values of that
quantity represented together in a set. It is a collection
of facts and figures to be used for a specific purpose
such as a survey or analysis. When arranged in an
organized form, can be called information. The source of
data (primary data, secondary data) is also an important
factor.

Types of Data
Data may be qualitative or quantitative. Once you know
the difference between them, you can know how to use
them.

 Qualitative Data: They represent some

characteristics or attributes. They depict descriptions
that may be observed but cannot be computed or
calculated. For example, data on attributes such
as intelligence, honesty, wisdom, cleanliness, and
creativity collected using the students of your class a
sample would be classified as qualitative. They are
more exploratory than conclusive in nature.
 Quantitative Data: These can be measured and not
simply observed. They can be numerically represented
and calculations can be performed on them. For
example, data on the number of students playing
different sports from your class gives an estimate of
 how many of the total students play which sport. This
information is numerical and can be classified as
quantitative.

Data Collection
Depending on the source, it can classify as primary data
or secondary data. Let us take a look at them both.

Primary Data
These are the data that are collected for the first
time by an investigator for a specific purpose. Primary
data are ‘pure’ in the sense that no statistical operations
have been performed on them and they are original. An
example of primary data is the Census of Pakistan.

Secondary Data
They are the data that are sourced from
someplace that has originally collected it.
This means that this kind of data has already been
collected by some researchers or investigators in the
past and is available either in published or unpublished
form. This information is impure as statistical operations
may have been performed on them already. An
example is information available on the Government of
Pakistan, the Department of Finance’s website or in
other repositories, books, journals, etc.

The Qualitative data are further classified into two parts :

A. Nominal Data

Nominal Data is used to label variables without any order or quantitative

value. The color of hair can be considered nominal data, as one color can’t be
compared with another color.

The name “nominal” comes from the Latin name “numen,” which means
“name.” With the help of nominal data, we can’t do any numerical tasks or
can’t give any order to sort the data. These data don’t have any meaningful
order; their values are distributed into distinct categories.

Examples of Nominal Data:

 Color of hair (Blonde, red, Brown, Black, etc.)

 Marital status (Single, Widowed, Married)
 Nationality (Indian, German, American)
 Gender (Male, Female, Others)
 Eye Color (Black, Brown, etc.)
B. Ordinal Data

Ordinal data have natural ordering where a number is present in some kind of
order by their position on the scale. These data are used for observation like
customer satisfaction, happiness, etc., but we can’t do any arithmetical tasks
on them.

Ordinal data is qualitative data for which their values have some kind of
relative position. These kinds of data can be considered “in-between”
qualitative and quantitative data.

The ordinal data only shows the sequences and cannot use for statistical
analysis. Compared to nominal data, ordinal data have some kind of order
that is not present in nominal data.
Examples of Ordinal Data:

 When companies ask for feedback, experience, or satisfaction on a

scale of 1 to 10
 Letter grades in the exam (A, B, C, D, etc.)
 Ranking of people in a competition (First, Second, Third, etc.)
 Economic Status (High, Medium, and Low)
 Education Level (Higher, Secondary, Primary)
Difference between Nominal and Ordinal Data

Nominal Data Ordinal Data

Nominal data can’t be quantified, neither Ordinal data gives some kind of sequential order by
they have any intrinsic ordering their position on the scale

Nominal data is qualitative data or Ordinal data is said to be “in-between” qualitative data
categorical data and quantitative data

They don’t provide any quantitative value, They provide sequence and can assign numbers to
neither can we perform any arithmetical ordinal data but cannot perform the arithmetical
operation operation

Nominal data cannot be used to compare Ordinal data can help to compare one item with
with one another another by ranking or ordering

Examples: Eye color, housing style, gender,

Examples: Economic status, customer satisfaction,
hair color, religion, marital status, ethnicity,
education level, letter grades, etc.
etc.

2. Quantitative Data

Quantitative data is a type of data that can be expressed in numerical values,

making it countable and including statistical data analysis. These kinds of data
are also known as numerical data.
It answers the questions like “how much,” “how many,” and “how often.” For
example, the price of a phone, the computer’s ram, the height or weight of a
person, etc., falls under quantitative data.

Quantitative data can be used for statistical manipulation. These data can be
represented on a wide variety of graphs and charts, such as bar graphs,
histograms, scatter plots, boxplots, pie charts, line graphs, etc.

Examples of Quantitative Data :

 Height or weight of a person or object

 Room Temperature
 Scores and Marks (Ex: 59, 80, 60, etc.)
 Time
The Quantitative data are further classified into two parts:

A. Discrete Data

The term discrete means distinct or separate. The discrete data contain the
values that fall under integers or whole numbers. The total number of students
in a class is an example of discrete data. These data can’t be broken into
decimal or fraction values.

The discrete data are countable and have finite values; their subdivision is not
possible. These data are represented mainly by a bar graph, number line, or
frequency table.

Examples of Discrete Data:

 Total numbers of students present in a class

 Cost of a cell phone
 Numbers of employees in a company
 The total number of players who participated in a competition
 Days in a week
B. Continuous Data

Continuous data are in the form of fractional numbers. It can be the version of
an android phone, the height of a person, the length of an object, etc.
Continuous data represents information that can be divided into smaller
levels. The continuous variable can take any value within a range.
The key difference between discrete and continuous data is that discrete data
contains the integer or whole number. Still, continuous data stores the
fractional numbers to record different types of data such as temperature,
height, width, time, speed, etc.

Examples of Continuous Data:

 Height of a person
 Speed of a vehicle
 “Time-taken” to finish the work
 Wi-Fi Frequency
 Market share price
Difference between Discrete and Continuous Data

Discrete Data Continuous Data

Discrete data are countable and finite; they are Continuous data are measurable; they are in the
whole numbers or integers form of fractions or decimal

Discrete data are represented mainly by bar Continuous data are represented in the form of a
graphs histogram

The values cannot be divided into subdivisions The values can be divided into subdivisions into
into smaller pieces smaller pieces

Continuous data are in the form of a continuous

Discrete data have spaces between the values
sequence

Examples: Total students in a class, number of Example: Temperature of room, the weight of a
days in a week, size of a shoe, etc. person, length of an object, etc.