Ordinal data

Not to be confused with Ordinal data (programming).

In statistics, ordinal data is a statistical data type consisting of numerical scores that exist on an ordinal scale, i.e. an arbitrary numerical scale where the exact numerical quantity of a particular value has no significance beyond its ability to establish a ranking over a set of data points.

A variable, the data on which are ordinal, is known as an ordinal variable. In regression analysis, outcomes (dependent variables) that are ordinal variables can be predicted using a variant of ordinal regression, such as ordered logit or ordered probit.

Examples of ordinal data are often found in questionnaires: for example, the survey question "Is your general health poor, reasonable, good, or excellent?" may have those answers coded respectively as 1, 2, 3, and 4. Sometimes data on an interval scale or ratio scale are grouped onto an ordinal scale: for example, individuals whose income is known might be grouped into the income categories $0-$19,999, $20,000-$39,999, $40,000-$59,999, ..., which then might be coded as 1, 2, 3, 4, ....