Attribute
A nonnumeric or qualitative variable.
Class frequency
The number of items (observations) in a class.
Class interval
The width of a class- distance between its limits.
Continuous variable
A variable that can have any value within a specified range.
Descriptive statistics
Measures of organizing, summarizing, and presenting data in an informative way.
Dispersion
The degree of variation in data.
Frequency distribution
The grouping of data into mutually exclusive classes showing the number of observations in each class.
Geometric mean
A measure of location that is used to determine an average annual % increase.
Inferential statistics
An estimate, prediction or generalization about a population, based on a sample.
Median
Midpoint of the values after they have been placed in order.
Mode
The value of the observation that appears most frequently.
Mutually exclusive
The classes in a frequency table are constructed so that data will fit into only one category.
Parameter
Characteristic of a population.
Population
An entire set of individuals or objects of interest.
Range
The difference between the largest and the smallest values in a data set.
Relevant
Information that is capable of making a difference in the user's decision.
Sample
A portion, or part, of the population of interest.
Statistic
Characteristic of a sample.