Question

Does it make sense to calculate the median for nominal variables?

Answer 1

The answer is--

No,it does not make sense to calculate the median for nominal variables.

EXPLANATION--

There are two types of categorical variables--Nominal and Ordinal..

Ordinal variables are categorical variables,which cannot be expressed numerically,but we can assign significant orders

to them.(e.g.Educational qualification,since we can order the educational qualification as Non-graduate,Graduate or

Post-graduate) .

On the other hand,Nominal variables are also categorical variables,which cannot be expressed numerically and also we cannot order them accordingly.

(e.g. Gender( Male,Female,Others) , Food preference(Veg or Non-veg) etc.)

Now,median is usually calculated for Quantitative variables,where we can find some significant numerical figures.

(e.g. We can calculate the median for the heights of the students of a class,where the heights are measured in inches(say).

i.e. we can find significant numerical figures about heights and so the median can be calculated by following the right

procedure.)

But calculating median for Nominal variables are meaningless as they can not be expressed numerically and they are not

eligible for algebric operations too.

Hence,it does not make any sense to calculate the median for the Nominal variables.(ANSWER)