Types Of Data Worksheet

Types of data at a glance

Data is classified into various types based on its content. The first categorisation is between qualitative data and quantitative data. Qualitative data is non-numeric, such as modes of transport or favourite colour, whereas quantitative data is numerical data, such as age or number of children. Qualitative data is also called categorical data, because it takes certain categories, rather than numerical values, or descriptive data. 

Quantitative data is then further split into two sub-groups, discrete and continuous data. Discrete data is data which can only take certain values (like whole numbers), such as shoe size, whereas continuous data can take any value in a given range, such as height or weight. Generally, discrete data is countable (usually integers) whereas continuous data is measured to a given degree of accuracy (e.g. decimal places). 

The distinction between primary and secondary data relates to the method of data collection. Primary data is that which we have collected ourselves – for example, by collecting data from answers to a questionnaire. Secondary data is a set of data which has been collected by someone else and made available for our use – for example, data provided by the ONS (the Office for National Statistics).

Different types of data require different representations in charts or graphs. For example, a bar graph is a good choice for displaying discrete data, but a histogram should be used for continuous data. Some, like a box plot, can be used to display any quantitative data, whereas a pie chart is most appropriate for qualitative data.

Looking forward, students can then progress to additional Statistics worksheets, for example the line graph worksheet, the pie chart worksheet, or the stratified sampling worksheet.

For more teaching and learning support on Statistics our GCSE maths lessons provide step by step support for all GCSE maths concepts.