How does association differ from linear correlation in statistics?

In statistics, the terms "association" and "correlation" are often used interchangeably, but they have distinct meanings in a technical context.1

• Association is a broad, general term referring to any relationship between two or more variables, regardless of the nature of that relationship. It can be quantified using various methods depending on the data type, such as the chi-square test for categorical variables or relative risk in epidemiology.1
• Correlation refers specifically to the strength of a linear relationship between two variables. It is a subset of association analysis. When researchers calculate a correlation coefficient, they are measuring how closely data points follow a straight-line path.123

While correlation analysis (such as Pearson’s correlation coefficient) quantifies the strength of a linear association, it does not measure the significance of that association, nor does it imply causation. It is essential to remember that while an association may exist between variables, it does not prove that one variable causes changes in another.1342