Title: Levels of Measurement and different types of variable
Course: UGQuants (SSPS) > Section: Introduction to Quantitative Analysis

Levels of Measurement and different types of variable

In quantitative analysis we describe different types of variables as being based on different levels of measurement. Categorising variables in this way is not merely a matter of description and classification: level of measurement has significant implications for the type of analysis we may legitimately perform with a given variable or variables. We normally speak of four levels of measurement, although with respect to analysis the third and fourth are quite closely related. Each may be understood in terms of how the different values of the variable relate to each other.

Levels of measurement
Nominal |
Ordinal |
Interval |
Ratio |