Ordinal data | Statistics

Ordinal data is a higher level of data compared to nominal data. Ordinal data can be ranked and one can therefore say that one category is better than another category.

For ordinal data, we can not determine the difference between categories, we only know the ranking. For ordinal data, we can not say how much better a category is compared to another. Examples of ordinal data are grades in school.

Ordinal data are divided into categories that are mutually exclusive and exhaustive. With mutually exclusive means that an individual, an object or a measurement can not be in more than one category. With exhaustive means that each observation must be in a category, the category 'other' can be added so that all observations can be classified into one category.