Levels of Measurement in Statistics

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LEVELS OF MEASUREMENT
There are four types of measurements or levels of measurement or measurement scales used in
statistics:
1. nominal,
2. ordinal,
3. interval, and
4. ratio.
Nominal scale
At the nominal scale, i.e., for a nominal category, one uses labels; for example, rocks can be generally
categorized as igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic. For this scale some valid operations are
equivalence and set membership.
Variables assessed on a nominal scale are called categorical variables; see also categorical data.
Stevens must have known that claiming nominal scales to measure obviously non-quantitative things
would have attracted criticism, so he invoked his theory of measurement to justify nominal scales as
measurement:
“…the use of numerals as names for classes is an example of the assignment of numerals
according to rule. The rule is: Do not assign the same numeral to different classes or different
numerals to the same class. Beyond that, anything goes with the nominal scale.”
Ordinal scale
In this scale type, the numbers assigned to objects or events represent the rank order (1st, 2nd, 3rd etc.)
of the entities assessed. An example of ordinal measurement is the results of a horse race, which say
only which horses arrived first, second, third, etc. but include no information about times. Another is the
Mohs scale of mineral hardness, which characterizes the hardness of various minerals through the ability
of a harder material to scratch a softer one, saying nothing about the actual hardness of any of them.
Interestingly, Stevens' writings betrayed a critical view of psychometrics as he argued:
“As a matter of fact, most of the scales used widely and effectively by psychologists are ordinal
scales. In the strictest propriety the ordinary statistics involving means and standard deviations
ought not to be used with these scales, for these statistics imply a knowledge of something more
than the relative rank order of data (1946, p.679).”
Psychometricians like to theorise that psychometric tests produce interval scale measures of cognitive
abilities but there is little prima facie evidence to suggest that such attributes are anything more than
ordinal. The central tendency of an ordinal attribute can be represented by its mode or its median, but the
mean cannot be defined.
Interval scale
Quantitive attributes are all measurable on interval scales, as any difference between the levels of an
attribute can be multiplied by any real number to exceed or equal another difference. A highly familiar
example of interval scale measurement is temperature with the Celsius scale. In this particular scale, the
unit of measurement is 1/100 of the difference between the melting temperature and the boiling
temperature of water in atmospheric pressure. The "zero point" on an interval scale is arbitrary; and
negative values can be used. The formal mathematical term is an affine space (in this case an affine line).
Variables measured at the interval level are called "interval variables" or sometimes "scaled variables" as
they have units of measurement.
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Ratios between numbers on the scale are not meaningful, so operations such as multiplication and
division cannot be carried out directly. But ratios of differences can be expressed; for example, one
difference can be twice another.
The central tendency of a variable measured at the interval level can be represented by its mode, its
median, or its arithmetic mean. Statistical dispersion can be measured in most of the usual ways, which
just involved differences or averaging, such as range, interquartile range, and standard deviation. Since
one cannot divide, one cannot define measures that require a ratio, such as studentized range or
coefficient of variation. More subtly, while one can define moments about the origin, only central moments
are useful, since the choice of origin is arbitrary and not meaningful. One can define standardized
moments, since ratios of differences are meaningful, but one cannot define coefficient of variation, since
the mean is a moment about the origin, unlike the standard deviation, which is (the square root of) a
central moment.
Ratio measurement
Most measurement in the physical sciences and engineering is done on ratio scales. Mass, length, time,
plane angle, energy and electric charge are examples of physical measures that are ratio scales. The
scale type takes its name from the fact that measurement is the estimation of the ratio between a
magnitude of a continuous quantity and a unit magnitude of the same kind (Michell, 1997, 1999).
Informally, the distinguishing feature of a ratio scale is the possession of a non-arbitrary zero value. For
example, the Kelvin temperature scale has a non-arbitrary zero point of absolute zero, which is denoted
0K and is equal to -273.15 degrees Celsius. This zero point is non arbitrary as the particles that comprise
matter at this temperature have zero kinetic energy.
Examples of ratio scale measurement in the behavioural sciences are all but non-existent. Luce (2000)
argues that an example of ratio scale measurement in psychology can be found in rank and sign
dependent expected utility theory.
All statistical measures can be used for a variable measured at the ratio level, as all necessary
mathematical operations are defined. The central tendency of a variable measured at the ratio level can
be represented by, in addition to its mode, its median, or its arithmetic mean, also its geometric mean or
harmonic mean. In addition to the measures of statistical dispersion defined for interval variables, such as
range and standard deviation, for ratio variables one can also define measures that require a ratio, such
as studentized range or coefficient of variation.
They have different degrees of usefulness in statistical research. Ratio measurements have both a zero
value defined and the distances between different measurements defined; they provide the greatest
flexibility in statistical methods that can be used for analyzing the data. Interval measurements have
meaningful distances between measurements defined, but have no meaningful zero value defined (as in
the case with IQ measurements or with temperature measurements in Fahrenheit). Ordinal
measurements have imprecise differences between consecutive values, but have a meaningful order to
those values. Nominal measurements have no meaningful rank order among values.
Since variables conforming only to nominal or ordinal measurements cannot be reasonably measured
numerically, sometimes they are called together as categorical variables, whereas ratio and interval
measurements are grouped together as quantitative or continuous variables due to their numerical nature.
Some well-known statistical tests and procedures are:
• Analysis of variance (ANOVA)

• Chi-square test
• Correlation
• Factor Analysis
• Mann-Whitney U

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• Mean Square Weighted Deviation MSWD

• Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient
• Regression analysis
• Spearman's rank correlation coefficient
• Student's t-test
• Time Series Analysis

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What are the four levels of measurement?

What is the difference between an interval and ratio scale?

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Some well-known statistical tests and procedures are:

• Analysis of variance (ANOVA)

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• Mean Square Weighted Deviation MSWD

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