Which Statistical Tests to Use?

Level of
Measurement Statistical Test Requirements/ Limitation(s) Purpose
& Data Type
Chi square tests for 80% cells need 5 or more expected To test if observed frequencies differ from
Level one, two sample of k cases expected frequencies
Nominal independent samples
(Non Binomial test for one Can use medians and quartiles. No Tests yes/no data for nonrandomness of
Parametric) sample frequency requirements. Use when small, one sample cases. Useful test for
chi square requirements not met. small subpopulation.
Type Fisher Exact Use when small N instead of chi As for chi square.
Discrete Probability Test square.
Grouped Contingency As for chi square. To test degrees of association (correlation)
Coefficient between two variables.
Mann Whitney U Use when t-test requirements not Tests for central tendency, and whether two
Test for two met. Use for small N but not for independent samples from the same population.
independent samples. many tied values. Two samples. Tests for differences and similarities.
Almost as powerful as Needs continuously distributed data.
Level t- test.
Ordinal (NON Wilcoxon test for two Needs relatively continuous data. As for U-test but for paired samples.
Parametric) related samples. As for U test but for paired values.
Median Test. Use when U test has too many tied As for U-test. Uses when U-test requirements
values not met.
Type
Data arranged Signs test. Randomness; independent sets of Tests for differences and significance between
on interval data. Data less normal than two sets of data. Before/ after type situations.
scales which Wilcoxon.
have been given Kolmogorov- Smimov As for median test. Needs relatively Tests similarities of distributions. Alternative
ranks two sample test. continuous data. to chi square where small sample and many
tied values.
(a) Friedman test Independent random sample (a) two
(b) Kruskal Wallis samples, (b) k samples Analysis of Variance
test
Level Runs Test Assumes normal distribution To test number of runs in a sequence. To test
Ordinal (Non number of runs which may be considered
Parametric) random. Tests for differences in dispersion.
Binomial (proportions) Data in percentages or other As for z scores
Type test proportions
Data arranged Spearmans rank Cannot handle too many paired To test correlation between variables having
on interval correlation coefficient values. paired values.
scales which Kendalls rank Can handle many paired values. To test correlation between variables having
have been given correlation paired values.
ranks
Level t-test for two To test match means between samples or
Interval independent samples, groups. Only slightly more powerful than U-
(Parametric) and matched pairs test.
Standard, Z scores To test probability of an occurrence, or to
Type Approximately normal distribution compare places of individuals on two
Continuous distributions.
Individual Standard Error of To determine confidence limits for samples.
means
Regression To show graphically, relationship between
variables, and likely trends or prediction
Level Analysis of Variance To test significance of differences between
Ratio (ANOVA) means.
(Parametric) Pearsons Product To test correlation between variables. Very
Type Moment Correlation Approximately normal distribution. Powerful.
Continuous
Individual