Analyzing Categorical Data

Statistics · Axiom Academy

INTRO Analyzing Categorical Data Discover how statistics helps us understand categories, patterns, and make sense of the world around us. Drag each piece of data into the correct category. Think about what makes them different! Categorical Data Becomes Counts Click on the fruit data below to see what happens when we analyze categorical data. Click to see what happens when reality doesn't match our expectations. You flip a coin 100 times. If the coin is fair, you'd expect 50 heads and 50 tails. But here's what you actually observed : Is this difference (8 more heads than expected) due to random chance , or is the coin actually unfair ? Categorical data describes groups or categories (colors, types, yes/no). We can't do arithmetic with categories, so we count them instead! We analyze categorical data by counting frequencies - how many times each category appears. These counts become our numerical data for analysis. The key to categorical analysis is comparing what we observed (actual counts) with what we expected (predicted counts). Statistical tests help us decide if differences are significant!

This is the written version of the interactive lesson above. See the full Statistics course.