categorical data the second type of data that we're going to talk about is categorical dataand this is data that has no inherent numeric meaning most of the timeyou can' really compare one category to another directly things like genderyes/no questionsracestate of residenceproduct categorypolitical partyyou can assign numbers to these categoriesand often you willbut those numbers have no inherent meaning sofor examplei can say that the area of texas is greater than the area of floridabut can' just say texas is greater than floridathey're just categories there' no real numerical quantifiable meaning to themit' just ways that we categorize different things now againi might have some sort of numerical assignation to each state meani could say that florida is state number and texas state number but there' no real relationship between and thererightit' just shorthand to more compactly represent these categories so againcategorical data does not have any intrinsic numerical meaningit' just way that you're choosing to split up set of data based on categories