Statistical survey

Statistical surveys are collections of information about items in a population.

Surveys can be grouped into numerical and categorical types. A numerical survey is to get numbers as replies. For example:

How many minutes, on average, do you spend eating breakfast?

This survey question is used to generate numbers in minutes. An example of a categorical question is:

What is your favorite color?

The categories for this would be yellow, green, purple, etc... which are not numbers.

Surveys of human populations and institutions are common in political polling and government, health, social science and marketing research. A survey may concentrate on opinions or factual information depending on its purpose.