Question

A survey handed out to individuals at a major shopping mall in a small Florida city in July asked the following: Gender Age Ethnicity Length of residency Overall satisfaction with city services (using a scale of 1–5, ranging from poor to excellent) Quality of schools (using a scale of 1–5, ranging from poor to excellent) What types of data (categorical, ordinal, interval, or ratio) do each of the survey items represent and why?

Answer 1

Answer and Explanation:

Gender data is categorical as it can be sorted into two categories - males and females - and does not involve any numerical values.

Age data is ratio as each person's age is a numerical value and it has a natural zero as point of origin. Moreover, the numerical values cannot be negative.

Ethnicity data is categorical as the various ethnicities to which those surveyed can belong are separate categories. There are no numerical values involved.

Length of residency data is ratio as the length duration is measured in number of years, thus having a numerical value. There is also a natural zero as point of origin and no possible negative values.

Overall satisfaction with city services data is ordinal as it is based on a ranking from poor to excellent.

Quality of schools data is also ordinal as it involves a ranking or definite ordering of data - from poor to excellent.