Definition Nominal scale

Nominal scales correspond to the lowest level of measurement and are used to represent and classify qualitative characteristics of attributes.

Examples include variables such as gender and nationality. Within nominal scales, we can only count different variables and depict their frequency. The only available location parameter is the mode. With nominal scales, is not possible to identify medians or arithmetic means.

Qualitative rankings surch as better/worse, bigger/smaller fall into the category/definition of ordinal scales.

Please note that the definitions in our statistics encyclopedia are simplified explanations of terms. Our goal is to make the definitions accessible for a broad audience; thus it is possible that some definitions do not adhere entirely to scientific standards.