How do I decide which level of measurement to use?
Some variables have fixed levels. For example, gender and ethnicity are always nominal level data because they cannot be ranked.
However, for other variables, you can choose the level of measurement. For example, income is a variable that can be recorded on an ordinal or a ratio scale:
- At an ordinal level, you could create 5 income groupings and code the incomes that fall within them from 1–5.
- At a ratio level, you would record exact numbers for income.
If you have a choice, the ratio level is always preferable because you can analyze data in more ways. The higher the level of measurement, the more precise your data is.
Related article: Levels of Measurement | Nominal, Ordinal, Interval and Ratio
Levels of measurement, also called scales of measurement, tell you how precisely variables are recorded. In scientific research, a variable is anything that can take on different values across your data set (e.g., height or test scores). There are 4 levels of measurement: Nominal: the data can only be categorized Ordinal: the data can be […]
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