qualitative variable

In statistics, a qualitative variable is a characteristic that can be categorized but not measured numerically. These variables represent labels or names for distinct groups. For example, gender (male/female) or marital status (single, married, divorced, widowed) are qualitative variables.1

In contrast, quantitative variables measure "how much" or "how many" and are expressed numerically, such as age or income. The proportion or percentage of data falling into each category is the primary numerical summary for qualitative data. Qualitative variables can be incorporated into statistical models using "dummy variables," which assign numerical values to represent the different categories.123