Nominal, ordinal and scale

May 3rd, 2006 mark

Today Erik from the Netherlands sent us the following question:

What is the diffrence between nominal, ordinal and scale?

In SPSS you can specify the level of measurement as scale (numeric data on an interval or ratio scale), ordinal, or nominal. Nominal and ordinal data can be either string alphanumeric) or numeric.But what is the difference?

Nominal.
A variable can be treated as nominal when its values represent categories with no intrinsic ranking; for example, the department of the company in which an employee works. Examples of nominal variables include region, zip code, or religious affiliation.A variable can be treated as nominal when its values represent categories with no intrinsic ranking; for example, the department of the company in which an employee works. Examples of nominal variables include region, zip code, or religious affiliation.

Ordinal.
A variable can be treated as ordinal when its values represent categories with some intrinsic ranking; for example, levels of service satisfaction from highly dissatisfied to highly satisfied. Examples of ordinal variables include attitude scores representing degree of satisfaction or confidence and preference rating scores.

A variable can be treated as ordinal when its values represent categories with some intrinsic ranking; for example, levels of service satisfaction from highly dissatisfied to highly satisfied. Examples of ordinal variables include attitude scores representing degree of satisfaction or confidence and preference rating scores.For ordinal string variables, the alphabetic order of string values is assumed to reflect the true order of the categories. For example, for a string variable with the values of low, medium, high, the order of the categories is interpreted as high, low,mediumwhich is not the correct order. In general, it is more reliable to use numeric codes to represent ordinal data.

Scale.
A variable can be treated as scale when its values represent ordered categories with a meaningful metric, so that distance comparisons between values are appropriate. Examples of scale variables include age in years and income in thousands of dollars.A variable can be treated as scale when its values represent ordered categories with a meaningful metric, so that distance comparisons between values are appropriate. Examples of scale variables include age in years and income in thousands of dollars.

(Source: SPSS User Guide)

Entry Filed under: Questions and answers, Statistics