Levels of Measurement Summary

There are four levels of measurement that we shall use when we are statistically analysing data. Let’s have a look at these briefly.

1. Nominal Data
   These pieces of data indicate categories but there is no order to these categories. This gives us the least amount of information out of these four measurements.
2. Ordinal Data
   Ordinal values give us more information than nominal values because they bring order to the categories of data we are working with. Since there is more information, we should be able to tell more of a story with the data we have.
3. Interval Numeric Data
   This is data that is measured in numbers but with some sort of arbitrary zero. It gives us more information by applying some sort of scale, that we can measure with, as well as a unit of measurement and we can use numbers for it.
4. Ratios
   This data is measured in numbers but has an absolute zero. This data is the richest in terms of how much information you can extract from it.