Raw data
Also called: Unclassified data · Topic: Economic Data: Census, NSS, Surveys and Statistical Tools · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 3 "Organisation of Data"
Meaning
Raw data, also called unclassified data, are data just as they were collected. They have not yet been sorted or grouped. They are usually large, bulky and hard to handle. Finding a pattern, an average or a conclusion in them is slow and tiring. So the first step is classification: arranging the data into groups by some rule, such as time, place, attribute or size. This brings order to the data.
Example
NCERT gives the maths marks of 100 students as a long list of numbers, and the monthly food spending of 50 households, which runs from Rs 1,007 to Rs 5,090. Just by looking at such a list, you cannot tell how many households spend less than Rs 2,000. Once the data are grouped into classes, the answer is easy to see.
Don't confuse with
- Primary data: this means data collected first-hand by the investigator. Primary data may be raw or already classified. "Raw" describes how organised data are, not who collected them.
Related concepts
- Classification
- Chronological classification
- Spatial classification
- Qualitative classification
- Quantitative classification
- Attribute
- Continuous variable
- Discrete variable
- Frequency
- Frequency distribution