Using Frequencies to Study Ordinal Data

In addition to the department of each contact, you have recorded their company ranks. Use Frequencies to study the distribution of company ranks to see if it meshes with your goals.

Running the analysis

  1. To summarize the company ranks of your contacts, from the menus choose:

    Analyze > Descriptive Statistics > Frequencies...

    Figure 1. Frequencies main dialog box
    Frequencies main dialog box with Company Rank selected as an analysis variable
  2. Click Reset to restore the default settings.
  3. Select Company Rank as an analysis variable.
  4. Click Charts.
  5. In the Charts dialog, select Bar charts.
  6. Click Continue.
  7. Click Format in the Frequencies dialog box.
  8. In the Formats dialog, select Descending values.
  9. Click Continue.
  10. Click OK in the Frequencies dialog box.

Frequency table

Figure 2. Frequency table for company rank
Frequency table for the Company Rank variable

The frequency table for ordinal data serves much the same purpose as the table for nominal data. For example, you can see from the table that 15.7% of your contacts are junior managers.

However, when studying ordinal data, the Cumulative Percent is much more useful. The table, since it has been ordered by descending values, shows that 62.7% of your contacts are of at least senior manager rank.

Bar chart

Figure 3. Bar chart for company rank
Bar chart of frequencies for the Company Rank variable

As long as the ordering of values remains intact, reversed or not, the pattern in the bar chart contains information about the distribution of company ranks. The frequency of contacts increases from Employee to Sr. Manager, then decreases somewhat at VP, then drops off.

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