Quantitative Data

Quantitative data generally refers to observations that are represented in numerical form. Examples include program funding level (in dollars), clients’ ages, number of hours of services received, and children's standardized test scores. All of these can be expressed as numbers, as amounts, or as degrees; that is, as quantitative data. Quantitative data can be analyzed with statistics, both descriptive and inferential. Traditionally, quantitative data are distinguished from qualitative data, in which observations are represented in words (or narrative) rather than in numbers. However, the boundaries between the two are more permeable than the distinction suggests, as when qualitative data give way to frequency counts of various themes or when a statistical finding is described in everyday language.