The table below shows different descriptive measure and the scale for which they are permissible. Binary variables
are technically on the nominal scale, but allow for some descriptive measures
that other nominal scaled variables don’t.
Binary
|
Nominal
|
Ordinal
|
Interval
|
Ratio
|
|
Percentiles
|
NO
|
NO
|
YES
|
YES
|
YES
|
Mean
|
YES[1]
|
NO
|
NO[2]
|
YES
|
YES
|
Median
|
NO
|
NO
|
YES
|
YES
|
YES
|
Mode
|
YES
[3]
|
YES
|
YES
|
YES[4]
|
YES[4]
|
Minimum
and Maximum
|
NO
|
NO
|
YES
|
YES
|
YES
|
Range
|
NO
|
NO
|
NO
|
YES
|
YES
|
Standard
Deviation
|
YES
|
NO
|
NO
|
YES
|
YES
|
Variance
|
YES
|
NO
|
NO
|
YES
|
YES
|
Interquartile
Range
|
NO
|
NO
|
NO
|
YES
|
YES
|
