Answer :
Final answer:
The marital status variable is an example of nominal data because it categorizes individuals without implying any order among the categories. So the correct answer is option (c)
Explanation:
The variable marital status, with categories such as single, married, divorced, or widowed, is an example of nominal data. When we classify data using nominal variables, we are dealing with data that are labels for categories with no intrinsic order among them. Nominal data can only be quantified by counting the number of observations in each category and expressing these counts in frequencies, such as percentages or raw numbers.
It's important to recognize that nominal data differ from ordinal data, which convey a meaningful sequence. While certain categorical variables, like military rank or education levels, can be ordered and are thus considered ordinal, marital status does not imply any natural order. Therefore, it cannot be considered ordinal. For instance, being single is not 'less than' or 'more than' being married. They are simply different states without a hierarchical relationship.
Another type of data is dichotomous, which only has two possible responses, like 'yes' or 'no'. Marital status contains more than two categories, thus it does not fit into a dichotomous classification. However, we could create a dichotomous variable from marital status by categorizing individuals as either 'partnered' (married or widowed) or 'not partnered' (single or divorced), but this would cause a loss of information.
The variables you mentioned are also different from continuous variables such as age or height, which can take on an infinite number of values, or discrete variables like the number of classes taken per school year, which are countable and finite. Nominal data, therefore, represents categorical information without an inherent numeric value or order.
Based on the provided definitions and understanding of data types, the correct answer to the student's question is c. Nominal.
