Many companies and organisations collect data to improve their information and products. Skills in collecting data can make this process more efficient and reliable.
This guide is for information only and it should help you understand the different types of data and how they can be used.
Data is a collective name for information recorded for statistical purposes. There are many different types of data:
discrete data - numerical data that can only take certain values, for example, the number of children in a classroom or a shoe size
continuous data - numerical data that can take any value within a given range, for example, the masses of 10 babies or the heights of some adults
primary data - data that has been collected from the original source for a specific purpose, for example, if a school wanted to know what their students thought of the school canteen service they would question the pupils directly
secondary data - data that is not originally collected by a group for a specific purpose, for example, finding out the average cost of cars in a car park by using national statistics