Parts of a statistical table
Topic: Economic Data: Census, NSS, Surveys and Statistical Tools · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 4 "Presentation of Data"
Meaning
A good statistical table has fixed parts so that anyone can read it correctly:
- Table number: for easy reference.
- Title: says what the table shows, for which place and for which time.
- Caption: the column headings.
- Stub: the row headings. The left-hand column that holds them is the stub column.
- Body: the actual numbers.
- Unit of measurement: for example per cent, crore or tonnes.
- Source: where the data come from.
- Note: any special explanation.
Example
Take a table titled "Literacy (age 7+), Census 2011 (%)". The captions are Rural, Urban and Total. The stubs are Male, Female and Total. The body holds figures such as male rural 79, female urban 80 and overall total 74. The unit is per cent, and the source is Census 2011.
Don't confuse with
- Caption vs stub: the caption heads the columns along the top. The stub heads the rows down the left side.
Related concepts
- Raw data
- Classification
- Chronological classification
- Spatial classification
- Qualitative classification
- Quantitative classification
- Attribute
- Continuous variable
- Discrete variable
- Frequency