Which type of data comprises numerical values that represent whole numbers?

• A. Discrete data
• B. Nominal data
• C. Ordinal data
• D. Continuous data

Answer: (A)

When data are obtained by counting individual items or events, the values are integers that can’t be subdivided. Those whole-number counts define discrete data. In healthcare quality improvement, examples include the number of infections, patient admissions, or medication errors—counts that stop at whole numbers because you can’t have a fraction of an event in a single observation. This is different from continuous data, which come from measurements and can take any value within a range (like time, weight, or blood pressure). Nominal data are categories without natural order, and ordinal data have a rank order but unequal intervals. So the data described are discrete: numerical counts that are whole numbers.