American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) Practice Exam

What type of data would educational attainment be classified as?

1. Nominal data

2. Ordinal data

3. Interval data

4. Ratio data

The correct answer is: Ordinal data

Educational attainment is classified as ordinal data because it involves a ranked order of levels of education, such as high school diploma, bachelor's degree, master's degree, and so forth. Each level represents a higher degree of education, and while the exact differences between these categories are not uniform (e.g., the skills and knowledge gained in a high school education compared to a master's degree vary widely), they can be ordered in a meaningful way. On the other hand, nominal data would involve categories without a specific order (like types of degrees), interval data would represent measurements with equal intervals but no true zero point (such as temperature), and ratio data includes meaningful zero values and equal intervals (like height or weight). These distinctions clarify why educational attainment fits best as ordinal data in this context.