Which of the following is an example of a categorical variable?

Which of the following is an example of a categorical variable?

• A. Gender
• B. Age in years
• C. Height
• D. Test score

Answer: (A)

Categorical variables label observations into groups rather than measuring quantity. Gender fits this because it divides people into categories such as male, female, or other, with no inherent numeric meaning attached to the labels. You can count how many fall into each category or express proportions, but you don’t perform arithmetic like averaging on the category values. The other options are numeric measurements: age in years, height, and test score are quantitative variables, meaning they represent quantities and support arithmetic operations.

Categorical variables label observations into groups rather than measuring quantity. Gender fits this because it divides people into categories such as male, female, or other, with no inherent numeric meaning attached to the labels. You can count how many fall into each category or express proportions, but you don’t perform arithmetic like averaging on the category values. The other options are numeric measurements: age in years, height, and test score are quantitative variables, meaning they represent quantities and support arithmetic operations.