What is categorical and numerical data?

What is data?

Data are measurements or observations that are collected as a source of information.

Statistical data can be divided into two types: categorical and numerical

Categorical data is data that is collected as a set of words. For example, when you ask someone for their favourite colour, country of birth, or gender, their answers are in words. These data can be sorted into groups or categories and hence called categorical data

Numerical data is data which is a set of numbers. Example: height of people, their age and daily temperatures.

Categorical data	Numerical data
Data collected in words	Data as a set of numbers
Can be grouped or categorised	Cannot be categorised
Eg. favourite colour, country of birth, gender	Eg. Height of people, their age and daily temperatures.