Which level of measurement uses numbers as labels for categories with no inherent order?

• A. Interval
• B. Nominal
• C. Ordinal
• D. Ratio

Answer: (B)

Nominal data are categorical labels that carry no inherent order. The numbers used are just names for the categories, not quantities with a rank or magnitude. Because there’s no meaningful order, you can count how many cases fall into each category and identify the most frequent category (mode), but you can’t meaningfully compute averages or differences between categories. This distinguishes nominal level from the other scales: ordinal adds an order among categories, interval has equal intervals between values, and ratio includes a true zero and meaningful ratios. For example, coding eye color as 1, 2, 3 labels categories without implying that one color is higher or lower than another.