Glossary term
Qualitative Data: Meaning and Definition
Reviewed and approved by Dr. Anamika ShrivastavaPublished Last updated
Qualitative data describe a quality, characteristic or category and cannot be measured on a numerical scale. Examples are gender, occupation, religion and satisfaction levels. They are analysed by counting how many units fall in each category, and the commonest category is shown by the mode.
In more detail
Some qualitative data have a natural order, such as grades from poor to excellent, and can be put in order, which allows rank correlation. Others, like occupation, have no order. Because qualitative data cannot be added, they are summarised by frequencies, percentages and diagrams such as bar and pie charts.
Example
Classifying 80 customers as “satisfied” or “not satisfied” gives qualitative data. Counting that 62 are satisfied turns it into a number for analysis.
Key points
- Describe categories, not amounts.
- Can be counted and shown as percentages.
- The mode is the suitable average.
Common mistake
Calculating a mean of categories such as occupations.
Related terms
Where it is explained
This term is explained in Class 11 Statistics Chapter 1: Introduction.