Association (statistics)

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In statistics, an association is any relationship between two measured quantities that renders them statistically dependent. The term "association" refers broadly to any such relationship, whereas the narrower term "correlation" refers to a linear relationship between two quantities.

There are many statistical measures of association that can be used to infer the presence or absence of an association in a sample of data. Examples of such measures include the product moment correlation coefficient, used mainly for quantitative measurements, and the odds ratio, used for dichotomous measurements.

In quantitative research, the term "association" is often used to emphasize that a relationship being discussed is not necessarily causal (see correlation does not imply causation).