Simple data that provides only qualitative differences. There is no ranking and data is classified without hierarchy. Examples of maps containing this class of data would show the location of different types of soil, vegetation or employment.
Data described by a value that assigns it to a category, but does not provide for a ranking or ordering of the values.
data in which the question responses can't be ordered, i.e., where one can't say that one response is more or less than another response, for example, the city in which the respondent lives.
Data that is referred to by a named subset (for example, data on the ages of males who wear hats on a daily basis).
Scales that only categorise people, but have no logical ordering – e.g. Male/Female.
Categorical data gathered into groups, with no order attached to them. For example, ethnicity.
Data that is organized into categories that are not in order – such as regions of the country, college attended, etc. Related terms: interval data, ordinal data EHR/NSF Evaluation Handbook, Chapter Seven: GlossarySource web site