Which statement about ordinal data is true?

Which statement about ordinal data is true?

• A. It provides exact numerical differences between values.
• B. It conveys order but not the magnitude of differences between categories.
• C. It uses a ratio scale.
• D. It cannot be used in nonparametric tests.

Answer: (B)

Ordinal data are about ranking—they show which category is higher or lower, but they don’t tell you how far apart the categories are. That means you can say one observation is above another, but you can’t quantify the size of the difference between them. So the true statement is that ordinal data convey order without guaranteeing the magnitude of differences between categories. Why the other ideas don’t fit: saying you get exact numerical differences would require intervals with equal spacing, which ordinal data do not provide. Using a ratio scale would require a true zero and meaningful, equal intervals, which ordinal data do not have. And while some tests assume normality and equal intervals, nonparametric tests are actually commonly used with ordinal data, because they don’t require those assumptions.

Ordinal data are about ranking—they show which category is higher or lower, but they don’t tell you how far apart the categories are. That means you can say one observation is above another, but you can’t quantify the size of the difference between them. So the true statement is that ordinal data convey order without guaranteeing the magnitude of differences between categories.

Why the other ideas don’t fit: saying you get exact numerical differences would require intervals with equal spacing, which ordinal data do not provide. Using a ratio scale would require a true zero and meaningful, equal intervals, which ordinal data do not have. And while some tests assume normality and equal intervals, nonparametric tests are actually commonly used with ordinal data, because they don’t require those assumptions.