Continuous variable
Topic: Economic Data: Census, NSS, Surveys and Statistical Tools · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 3 "Organisation of Data"; Class 11, Ch 4 "Presentation of Data"; Class 11, Ch 8 "Use of Statistical Tools"
Meaning
A continuous variable is a quantitative variable, meaning one measured in numbers. It can take any value within a range, whole or fractional. There is always another possible value between any two values. Measurements such as height, weight, time and distance are continuous. Continuous data are grouped into continuous (exclusive) classes and shown with a histogram.
Example
A person's height can be 160 cm, 160.5 cm or 160.25 cm. Any value in between is possible. NCERT's daily wages of 85 earners are also treated as continuous data and drawn as a histogram.
Don't confuse with
- Discrete variable: changes only in jumps and takes no value in between. The number of students in a class can be 30 or 31, never 30.5.
Related concepts
- Raw data
- Classification
- Chronological classification
- Spatial classification
- Qualitative classification
- Quantitative classification
- Attribute
- Discrete variable
- Frequency
- Frequency distribution