COLLECTING, ORGANISING AND DISPLAYING DATA

Everybody collects, interprets and uses information, muchof it in a numerical or statistical

form in day-to-day life. It is acommon practice that people receive large quantities of
informationeveryday through conversations, televisions, computers, the
radios,newspapers, posters, notices and instructions. It is just because thereis so much
information available that people need to be able toabsorb, select and reject it. In everyday
life, in business and industry,certain statistical information is necessary and it is
independent toknow where to find it how to collect it. As consequences, everybodyhas to
compare prices and quality before making any decision aboutwhat goods to buy. As
employees of any firm, people want tocompare their salaries and working conditions,
promotionopportunities and so on. In time the firms on their part want to controlcosts and
expand their profits.

One of the main functions of statistics is to provideinformation which will help on making
decisions. Statistics providesthe type of information by providing a description of
thepresent, aprofile of the past and an estimate of the future.

DATA

Is set of facts, numbers or other information.

Statistics involves a process of collecting data and using it to try answer or question.

Identify the research Organise and represent

Analyse and interpret
question or problem to Collect the data or display data through
the data
be solved graphs or chart.

Categories of data or methods of collecting data:

Any statistical data can be classified under two categoriesdepending upon the sources
utilized.
These categories are,

1. Primary data 2. Secondary data

3.Data collected by experiment,measurement, observation or carrying out a survey.

Primary data:

Primary data is the one, which is collected by the investigatorhimself for the purpose of a
specific inquiry or study. Such data isoriginal in character and is generated by surveys or
interviewed conducted byindividuals or research institution or any organization and also
by doing experiments or by counting and measuring.

Secondary Data:

Secondary data are those data which have been alreadycollected and analyzed by some
earlier agency for its own use; andlater the same data are used by a different agency.
According toW.A. Neiswanger, ‘A primary source is a publication in which the data are
published by the same authority which gathered and analyzedthem. A secondary source is
a publication, reporting the data whichhave been gathered by other authorities and for
which others areresponsible.

Sources of Secondary data:

In most of the studies the investigator finds it impracticable to collect first-hand

information on all related issues and as such he makes use of the data collected by others.
There is a vast amount of published information from which statistical studies may be
made and fresh statistics are constantly in a state of production.

The sources of secondary data can broadly be classified under two heads:

1. Published sources,
2. Unpublished sources.

Published Sources: The various sources of published data are: Clinical and other personal
records, death certificates, published mortality statistics, census publications, etc. Examples
include:

1. Official publications of Central Statistical Authority

2. Publication of Ministry of Health and Other Ministries
3. News Papers and research Journals.
4. International Publications like Publications by WHO, World Bank, UNICEF
5. Records of hospitals or any Health Institutions.
Data structure

We generally collect data from a number of individuals or ‘units. These units are most
often the children or adults that we are working with. However, our units could also be
hospitals or schools, for example. The different measurements, questions or pieces of
information that we collect from these individuals are the variables.

Variables

There are two types of variables, numerical and categorical. It is important to distinguish
between these two types of variables, as the analysis that you do for each type is slightly
different.

Categorical (DATA) variables are made up of a group of categories. Sex (male/female) is

acategorical variable, as is quality of training (good; bad; average), yes or no. Categorical
data is also called a s Qualitative Data

Numerical variables (DATA)are numbers. They can be counts (e.g. number of

participants at atraining) or measures (e.g. height of a child) or durations (e.g., age, time
spent). Numerical data is also called as Qualitative Data

CONTINOUS
NUMERIC
DATA
DISCRETE
VARIABLE
ORDINAL
CATEGORICAL
DATA
NOMINAL
Numeric data

Discrete variable is a numeric variable.

Observations can take a value based on a count from a set of distinct whole values. A
discrete variable cannot take the value of a fraction between one value and the next closest
value.

Examples of discrete variables include the number of registered cars, number of business
locations, and number of children in a family, all of which measured as whole units (i.e. 1, 2,
3 cars), goals scored in a match or red cars passing point. When you count things, you are
collecting discrete data.

continuous variable is a numeric variable.

Observations can take any value between a certain set of real numbers. The value
given to an observation for a continuous variable can include values as small as the
instrument of measurement allows. Continuous data is collected by measuring.

Examples of continuous variables include height, time, distance, masses, age, and
temperature.

Categorial Data

Ordinal variable is a categorical variable.

Observations can take a value that can be logically ordered or ranked.
The categories associated with ordinal variables can be ranked higher or lower than
another, but do not necessarily establish a numeric difference between each category.

Examples of ordinal categorical variables include academic grades (i.e. A, B, C), clothing size
(i.e. small, medium, large, extra-large) and attitudes (i.e. strongly agree, agree, disagree,
strongly disagree).

Nominal variable is a categorical variable. Observations can take a value that is not
able to be organized in a logical sequence.

Examples of nominal categorical variables include sex, business type, eye color, religion
and brand.