Many companies and organisations collect data to improve their information and products. Skills in collecting data can make this process more efficient and reliable.
This guide is for information only and should help you understand the different types of data and how they are used.
Data is a collective name for information recorded for statistical purposes. There are many different types of data:
qualitative data - data that can only be written in words, not numbers, for example, the colours of cars in a car park
quantitative data - data that can be written in numbers, for example, the heights of children
discrete data - numerical data that cannot be shown in decimals, for example, the number of children in a classroom
continuous data - numerical data that can be shown in decimals, for example, the weights of 10 babies
primary data - data that has been collected from the original source for a specific purpose, for example, if a school wanted to know what their students thought of the school canteen service they would question the pupils directly
secondary data - data that is not originally collected by a group for a specific purpose, for example, finding out the average cost of cars in a car park by using national statistics