Home > Statistics > Good teaching > Data collection > Types of data > Categorical and numerical data

Categorical and numerical data

The activity Unpacking Categorical and Numerical Data explores the essential understandings for the two types of data. It does this with an outline for an investigation based on the two questions below: one categorical and one numerical.

  • How do you usually get to school?
  • How long does it usually take?

You can download the Unpacking Categorical and Numerical Data: Student Worksheet and some sample responses using a random data set in Unpacking Categorical and Numerical Data: Teacher Notes.

This is a highly recommended activity that can be introduced in conjunction with Problems with Categorical Data and teaching advice on medians and categorical data

Curriculum links

Year 5: Pose questions and collect categorical or numerical data by observation or survey

Year 6: Interpret and compare a range of data displays, including side-by-side column graphs for two categorical variables

Source