Basic Terms in Statistics

November 14, 2019

LEARNING OUTCOME(S):

At the end of the lesson, the learner is able to

• Define universe and differentiate it with
population; and
• Define and differentiate between qualitative
and quantitative variables, and between
discrete and continuous variables (that are
quantitative);
DATA COLLECTION ACTIVITY
Definition of Terms:
The collection of respondents from whom one
obtain the data is called the universe.
The set of students of this Statistics and
Probability class is our universe. But we must
precaution the students that a universe is not
necessarily composed of people. Since there are
studies where the observations were taken from
plants or animals or even from non-living things
like buildings, vehicles, farms, etc.
we define universe as the collection or set of
units or entities from whom we got the data.
A variable is a characteristic that is observable
or measurable in every unit of the universe.
From each student of the class, we got the
his/her age, number of siblings, weight,
height, age of mother, usual daily allowance in
school, usual daily food expenditure in school,
usual number of text messages sent in a day,
most preferred color, usual sleeping time and
happiness index for the day. Since these
characteristics are observable in each and
every student of the class, then these are
referred to as variables.
The set of all possible values of a
variable is referred to as a population.
Thus for each variable we observed, we
have a population of values. The
number of population in a study will be
equal to the number of variables
observed.
A subgroup of a universe or of a
population is a sample. There are
several ways to take a sample from
a universe or a population and the
way we draw the sample dictates
the kind of analysis we do with our
data.
VARIABLES
A variable takes on several values. But
occasionally, a variable can only assume one
value, then it is called a constant. For
instance, in a class of fifteen-year olds, the
age in years of students is constant.
Variables can be broadly classified as either
quantitative or qualitative, with the latter
further classified into discrete and
continuous types
CLASSIFICATION OF VARIABLES
Qualitative Variables
Qualitative variables express a categorical attribute, such as sex
(male or female), religion, marital status, region of residence, highest
educational attainment. Qualitative variables do not strictly take on
numeric values (although we can have numeric codes for them, e.g.,
for sex variable, 1 and 2 may refer to male, and female, respectively).

Qualitative data answer questions “what kind.”

Sometimes, there is a sense of ordering in qualitative data, e.g.,

income data grouped into high, middle and low-income status. Data
on sex or religion do not have the sense of ordering, as there is no
such thing as a weaker or stronger sex, and a better or worse
religion. Qualitative variables are sometimes referred to as
categorical variables.
Quantitative Variables
Quantitative (otherwise called numerical) data,
whose sizes are meaningful, answer questions
such as “how much” or “how many”.

Quantitative variables have actual units of

measure. Examples of quantitative variables
include the height, weight, number of
registered cars, household size, and total
household expenditures/income of survey
respondents.
Quantitative data may be further
classified into:

a. Discrete data are those data that can be

counted, e.g., the number of days for cellphones
to fail, the ages of survey respondents measured
to the nearest year, and the number of patients in
a hospital. These data assume only (a finite or
infinitely) countable number of values.
b. Continuous data are those that can be
measured, e.g. the exact height of a survey
respondent and the exact volume of some liquid
substance. The possible values are uncountably
infinite.
Examples:
VARIABLES TYPES OF TYPES OF
VARIABLES QUANTITATIVE
VARIABLES
Qualitative
Class Student Number
Qualitative
Sex
Quantitative Discrete
Number of Siblings Quantitative Continuous
Weight (in kgs) Quantitative Continuous

Height (in cms) Quantitative Discrete

Age of Mother Quantitative Discrete

Usual Daily Allowance in Quantitative Discrete
School (in pesos)
Usual Number of Quantitative Discrete
Messages Sent in a day Qualitative
Qualitative
Usual Sleeping Time
Special Note:

For quantitative data, arithmetical operations have

some physical interpretation. One can add 301 and
302 if these have quantitative meanings, but if,
these numbers refer to room numbers, then
adding these numbers does not make any sense.
Even though a variable may take numerical values,
it does not make the corresponding variable
quantitative! The issue is whether performing
arithmetical operations on these data would make
any sense. It would certainly not make sense to
sum two zip codes or multiply two room numbers.
KEY POINTS:

• A universe is a collection of units from which the data

were gathered.
• A variable is a characteristic we observed or measured
from every element of the universe.
• A population is a set of all possible values of a
variable.
• A sample is a subgroup of a universe or a population.
• In a study there is only one universe but could have
several populations.
• Variables could be classified as qualitative or
quantitative, and the latter could be further classified as
discrete or continuous.
Seatwork #2
1. A market researcher company requested all teachers of a particular
school to fill up a questionnaire in relation to their product market study.
The following are some of the information supplied by the teachers:
• highest educational attainment
• predominant hair color
• body temperature
• civil status
• brand of laundry soap being used
• total household expenditures last month in pesos
• number of children in the household
• number of hours standing in queue while waiting to be served by a
bank teller
• amount spent on rice last week by the household
• distance travelled by the teacher in going to school
• time (in hours) consumed on Facebook on a particular day
a. If we are to consider the collection of information gathered through the
completed questionnaire, what is the universe for this data set?
b. Which of the variables are qualitative? Which are quantitative? Among
the quantitative variables, classify them further as discrete or continuous.
QUIZ # 1

A survey of students in a certain school is conducted. The survey questionnaire details the
information on the following variables. For each of these variables, identify whether the
variable is qualitative or quantitative, and if the latter, state whether it is discrete or
continuous.

a. number of family members who are working

b. ownership of a cell phone among family members
c. length (in minutes) of longest call made on each cell phone owned per
month
d. ownership/rental of dwelling
e. amount spent in pesos on food in one week
f. occupation of household head
g. total family income
h. number of years of schooling of each family member
i. access of family members to social media
j. amount of time last week spent by each family member using the internet

a. If we are to consider the collection of information gathered through the completed

questionnaire, what is the universe for this data set?
b. Which of the variables are qualitative? Which are quantitative? Among the
quantitative variables, classify them further as discrete or continuous.