Question

Suppose you have to sort sample units into categories according to their region of origin. The regions are “Africa,” “Americas,” “Asia,” “Europe,” and “Oceania.” For further analysis with a statistical software, you replace each region name with a numerical code: 1 for Africa, 2 for Americas, and so on. Are the data consisting of the region names qualitative or quantitative? Are the numerical codes qualitative or quantitative? Explain your answer.

Short answer

The data consisting of the names of the regions, even if they are replaced with numerical codes, are qualitative.

Step-by-step solution

Explaining the difference between qualitative and quantitative data

Qualitative data cannot be quantified for calculation purposes where mathematical and statistical formulas are involved. Qualitative data is non-numerical, whereas quantitative data can be analyzed with the help of mathematical and statistical formulas.

Providing the reason for the data to be qualitative and not quantitative

The names of the regions are associated with each number for simplicity in doing analysis, but that does not indicate that the data is quantified. It could have been called quantitative if the data had been related to any quantitative factors like population, temperature, gross national product, and others.