Which data level allows ranking but does not imply equal intervals between categories?

Which data level allows ranking but does not imply equal intervals between categories?

• A. Nominal
• B. Ordinal
• C. Interval
• D. Ratio

Answer: (B)

Ranking with uncertain spacing is a hallmark of ordinal data. In ordinal data, you can order categories from low to high, but the magnitude of the difference between adjacent categories isn’t defined or assumed to be equal. That’s why you can say one category is higher than another, but you can’t say how much higher. For example, movie ratings like poor, fair, good, and excellent are ordered, yet the jump from poor to fair isn’t guaranteed to match the jump from good to excellent. Other levels either have no order (nominal) or assume equal intervals (interval) or have a true zero (ratio), so they don’t fit the ranking-without-equal-differences scenario. So the data level that fits is ordinal data.

Ranking with uncertain spacing is a hallmark of ordinal data. In ordinal data, you can order categories from low to high, but the magnitude of the difference between adjacent categories isn’t defined or assumed to be equal. That’s why you can say one category is higher than another, but you can’t say how much higher. For example, movie ratings like poor, fair, good, and excellent are ordered, yet the jump from poor to fair isn’t guaranteed to match the jump from good to excellent. Other levels either have no order (nominal) or assume equal intervals (interval) or have a true zero (ratio), so they don’t fit the ranking-without-equal-differences scenario. So the data level that fits is ordinal data.