Nominal Data

Definition

Nominal Data in plain English

Nominal data is information sorted into named categories that have no natural ranking, the labels are just different, not better or worse. Think of ice-cream flavors (vanilla, chocolate, strawberry) or blood types (A, B, AB, O): you can count how many fall in each group, but it makes no sense to say one is "higher" than another. That's what separates it from data like race finishes (1st, 2nd, 3rd), which do have an order. The word "nominal" comes from "name," which is a handy reminder: these are just names for groups.

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