BASIC TERMS IN

STATISTICS
 DEFINITION OF BASIC TERMS

• Universe is 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.

• The set of all possible values of a variable is referred

to as a population.

• A subgroup of a universe or of a population is a

sample.
 VISUALIZATION
Of the relationship among variable, universe, population and sample
BROAD CLASSIFICATION OF VARIABLES
BROAD CLASSIFICATION OF VARIABLES

Qualitative variables express a categorical attribute,

such as gender, religion, marital status, region of
residence, highest educational attainment.

Qualitative data answer questions “what kind.”

Qualitative variables are sometimes referred to as

categorical variables.
BROAD CLASSIFICATION OF VARIABLES

Quantitative variables are also called numerical

variables.

Quantitative data, whose sizes are meaningful,

answer questions such as “how much” or “how
many”.

Quantitative variables have actual units of measure.

 FURTHER CLASSIFICATION OF
QUANTITATIVE DATA
1. Discrete data are those data that can be
counted.
Examples:
the number of days for cellphones to fail
the ages of survey respondents measured to
the nearest year
the number of patients in a hospital.

These data assume only (a finite or infinitely)

countable number of values.
 FURTHER CLASSIFICATION OF
QUANTITATIVE DATA
1. Continuous data are those that can be measured.

Examples:
the exact height of a survey respondent
the exact volume of some liquid substance

• The possible values are uncountably infinite.

 EXERCISES

1. For the following variables, state whether its

qualitative or quantitative. If quantitative, classify if
discrete or continuous.
• Student Number
• Code Name
• Gender
• Number of Siblings
• Weight (in kilograms)
• Height (in centimeters)
• Age of Mother
 EXERCISES

1. Continuation…

• Usual Daily Allowance in School (in pesos)

• Usual Daily Food Expenditure in School (in pesos)
• Usual Number of Text Messages Sent in a Day
• Usual Sleeping Time
• Most Preferred Color
• Happiness Index for the Day
 EXERCISES

2. 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.
 EXERCISES

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.

c. Give at least two populations that could be

observed from the variables identified in (b).
3. The Engineering Department of a big city did a
listing of all buildings in their locality. If you are
planning to gather the characteristics of these
buildings,
a. What is the universe of this data collection
activity?
b. What are the crucial variables to observe? Classify
the variables as to whether it is qualitative or
quantitative. Furthermore, classify the quantitative
variable as discrete or continuous.