Data that consists of words or categories rather than numbers is called

• A. Primary data
• B. Quantitative data
• C. Qualitative data
• D. Discrete numerical data

Answer: (C)

Data that consist of words or categories are qualitative data. They describe qualities or attributes rather than quantities and are non-numeric by nature, used to classify items. Examples include eye color, types of fruit, or satisfaction levels like satisfied or dissatisfied. Qualitative data can be nominal (no natural order) or ordinal (order exists but the differences between categories aren’t meaningful). In contrast, numerical data are counts or measurements and include discrete data (counts) and continuous data (measurements). This distinction is what identifies data described by words or categories as qualitative.