This document discusses the four main levels of measurement for variables: nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio. Nominal measurement simply assigns labels or numbers to categories without order or relation between them. Ordinal measurement ranks items in order but the distances between ranks are unknown. Interval measurement assumes equal distances between units of measurement but lacks a true zero point. Ratio measurement represents actual amounts and has a true zero point indicating a complete absence of the variable.

1. Levels of measurement in variables
by
Noman Ahmad
Department of library and information
science university of Peshawar
Session from 2018-2020
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2. Measurement of variables
The four main levels of measurement;
 Nominal level
 Ordinal level
 Interval level
 Ratio level
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3. Nominal level
 Nominal level is the most elementary form of
measurement
 It is simply a system of assigning number ,symbol
to elements in order to label them
 For example a population may be classified as
gender wise males and females
males may be assigned number 1 and females 2
 Members of a labeled set can only be counted
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4. Ordinal level
 Ordinal level place elements in order
 It ranks objects or elements from one largest to
smallest or one 1st to last
 Example : ranking of students according to scores
obtain by them
 Ordinal level represents which is greater and
which is smaller
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5. Interval level
 It assumes that the measurement are made in
equal units
 Gaps between whole numbers on the level are
equal
 An interval level have doesn't of true zero
 Example there is no concept of absolute zero in
time etc
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6. ratio level
 Ratio levels represents the actual amount of
variables
 Example : measurements of physical dimension
such as height weight distance etc
 Similar to interval level except that the ratio
level has a true zero
 The zero point on a centimeter levels indicates
the complete absence of length or height
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