Qualitative data is sometimes called categorical data because the information can be grouped by category, not by number. For example, think about when you read a story or a passage to your teacher. He or she might give you some feedback about how you read so that you can improve, such as how well you sounded out the words, if you read fluently and if you were using the pictures in the story to give clues about what was happening. If your teacher gives you this feedback without a grade, then this is an example of qualitative data because it was simply an evaluation of your reading behavior based on your teacher's observation. However, if your teacher tells you how many words you read per minute or gives you a score out of 10, this would be an example of quantitative data because it involves a number.

Qualitative data cannot be expressed as a number. Data thatrepresent nominal scales such as gender, socieo economic status, religiouspreference are usually considered to be qualitative data.

Essentially, qualitative data is important because it allows statisticians to form parameters through which to observe larger sets of data. For instance, a company that wanted to determine the diversity of its workforce would want to look at a set of qualitative data like race