While many demographic variables are categorical by nature, for example, religion, race, or nationality, those that are continuous by nature, such as age or income, can be recorded and managed either as continuous or categorical, both at the data collection stage or later in the data processing stage.
A researcher might also want to consider whether age acts as a moderator variable, such that the relationship between an independent and dependent variable changes according to how old a respondent is.Īge can be considered as a continuous, ratio variable. A researcher might want to understand the direct relationship between age and some outcome or they might recognise that changes occur with age and, thus, they must control for age when considering other relationships. Measurements of age can be of particular interest to social scientists in understanding those changes in behaviours, beliefs, attitudes, and lifestyles that coincide with age. These help to identify representativeness of a particular sample, as well as describing participants and providing valuable information to aid analysis.
1 Including Demographic Variable Age in AnalysisĪge is a key demographic variable, frequently recorded in survey data as part of a broader set of demographic variables, such as education, income, race, ethnicity, and gender.
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