Univariate and Bivariate

Univariate
Univariate means "one variable" (one type of data)
Example: Travel Time (minutes): 15, 29, 8, 42, 35, 21, 18, 42, 26
The variable is Travel Time
We can do lots of things with univariate data:

Find a central value using mean, median and mode

Find how spread out it is using range, quartiles and standard deviation

Make plots like Bar Graphs, Pie Charts and Histograms

Univariate analysis is simple form of statistical analysis which involves only a single variable.
There are two main ways of analyzing univariate data,
1) A numeric method
2) A graphic method.
The numeric method involves using descriptive statistics to summaries the main features of the
data in table form
The graphic method involves using various graphs and charts to visualize the main aspects of
the variable.
Univariate analysis is used mainly for descriptive purposes, and most commonly involves
frequency tables, graphs and descriptive statistics.
We can use univariate analysis to find out specific information relating to each variable.
Information such as range, median, mean, skewness and standard deviation etc.

Example
We take a group of people, measure their heights, and get this list of heights:
5'2'', 5'4'', 6'1'', 5'9'', 5'3''.
This is univariate data, since we're only observing one aspect (the height) of each person.

Bivariate
Bivariate means "two variables", in other words there are two types of data. With
bivariate data you have two sets of related data that you want to compare.

Bivariate analysis is one of the simplest form of quantitative analysis. It involves the
performing of an analysis between two variables for the purpose of determining if an empirical
relationship exists between them. This analysis will reveal whether or not there exists an
association,
the strength of such an association or whether there is a difference between the variables.
Using graphs and charts is an easy way to visually represent the relationships and patterns that
may be present between two variables. Here we will use three graphical methods for bivariate
analysis. A 3-D Bar graph - used to show the relationship between two categorical variables; a
box plot - for the relationship between one categorical and one continuous variable; and a scatter
plot - for analyzing two continuous variables.
When we compare two variables, we want to use bivariate analysis. There are
multiple types of bivariate analysis.

Bivariate analysis allows us to

Look at associations/relationships among two variables.

Look at measures of the strength of the relationship between two variables.

Test hypotheses about relationships between two nominal or ordinal level variables.

Some examples:
Height ( X) and weight (Y) are measured for each individual in a sample.
Stock market valuation (X) and quarterly corporate earnings (Y) are recorded for each company
in a sample.
A cell culture is treated with varying concentrations of a drug, and the growth rate (X) and drug
concentration (Y) are recorded for each trial.
Temperature (X) and precipitation (Y) are measured on a given day at a set of weather stations

Examine the differences between univariate and bivariate data.

Univariate Data

Bivariate Data

involving a single variable

involving two variables

does not deal with causes or relationships

deals with causes or relationships

the major purpose of univariate analysis is to

the major purpose of bivariate analysis is to

describe

explain

central tendency - mean, mode, median

analysis of two variables simultaneously

dispersion - range, variance, max, min,

correlations

comparisons, relationships, causes,

quartiles, standard deviation.

frequency distributions

bar graph, histogram, pie chart, line

explanations

graph, box-and-whisker plot

tables where one variable is contingent on

the values of the other variable.

independent and dependent variables

Sample question: How many of the students in the

Sample question: Is there a relationship between

freshman class are female?

the number of females in Computer Programming

and their scores in Mathematics?