ordinal data
numerical values that represent rankings along a continuum from lowest to highest, as in a judge’s assignment of a 2 to denote that a particular athlete’s performance was fair and a 3 to denote that a subsequent athlete’s performance was better. Ordinal data may be counted (i.e., how many athletes obtained a 2, how many a 3, etc.) and arranged in descending or ascending sequence but may not be manipulated arithmetically—such as by adding, subtracting, dividing, or multiplying any rank by any other—because the actual difference in performance between adjacent values is unspecified and may vary. In other words, one does not know how much better a rank of 3 is than a 2, and the difference between a 2 and a 3 may not be the same as the difference between a 3 and a 4.