To move beyond frequency counts, it is important to understand
how data is measured. In nominal scales the respondent
answers a question in one particular way,
choosing from a number of mutually exclusive answers.
Answers to questions about marital status, religious af-
filiation and gender are examples of nominal scales of
measurement. The categories include everyone in the sample,
no one should fit into more than one category and the
implication is that no one category is better than another.