Statistical Data

What is Data??
Data is a collection of facts, such as numbers, words, measurements, observations or even just descriptions of things.

Qualitative vs Quantitative
Data can be qualitative or quantitative.

• Qualitative data is descriptive information (it describes something)
• Quantitative data is numerical information (numbers)

And Quantitative data can also be Discrete or Continous:

• Discrete data can only take certain values (like whole numbers)
• Continous data can take any value (within a range)

More Examples:

Qualitative:

• Your friends' favorite holiday destination
• The most common given names in your town
• How people describe the smell of a new perfume

Quantitative:

• Height (Continuous)
• Weight (Continuous)
• Petals on a flower (Discrete)
• Customers in a shop (Discrete)

Discrete and Continous Data

Data that can be Descriptive (like "high" or "fast") or Numerical (numbers)

And Numerical Data can be Discrete or Continuous:

Discrete data is counted,
Continuous data is measured

Discrete Data

Can only take a certain values.

Which is the number of students in the class (you can't have half a student)

For example: the number of the rooling dice; can only have the values 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,  10, 11 and 12

Continous Data

Can take any values (within a range)

Examples:

• A person's height: could be any value (within the range of human heights), not just certain fixed heights,
• Time in a race: you could even measure it to fractions of a second,
• A dog's weight,
• The length of a leaf,
• Lots more!