Title: Nominal
Course: UGQuants (SSPS) > Section: Introduction to Quantitative Analysis

Nominal

We speak of a nominal level of measurement when the values of a variable are merely distinct from one another, but do not otherwise have any logical order to them. For example if we ask people in the UK to classify themselves into an ethnic group we might assign the value 1 to the category White British, 2 to Black African, 3 to Chinese etc. The order of the categories is purely random: the numerical values do not have any inherent meaning other than as a means of distinguishing one category from another; they do not indicate that any category is ‘higher’ or ‘lower’ than any other. The same would be true of variables that record which political party people voted for in an election, or what type of housing they live in.

For examples of how such variables are structured in actual survey questionnaires, follow the links below

Links
Self-completion questionnaire: youth self-completion questionnaire of the 2012 wave of ‘Understanding Society’, the UK Household Longitudinal Study Q19 - Q27 | Questionnaire filled out by interviewer: Survey of Carers in Households 2009/10 No.4 | Questionnaire filled out by interviewer: Scottish Social Attitudes Survey 2010 Q414-Q422 on page 61