Quantitative research

How it is used

Associated with surveys, official statistics, experiments and large datasets. Researchers talk about representative samples, variables, correlation and statistical significance. In sociology it is often linked to the positivist tradition.

Example sentences

1. The quantitative research was based on a national survey of 4,000 households.

2. Quantitative research can show how common a pattern is, but not always why it happens.

Common collocations

• quantitative research methods
• quantitative data
• quantitative analysis
• large-scale quantitative study

Related terms

• qualitative researchResearch that collects non-numerical data, such as interviews, observations and texts, to understand people's experiences, meanings and points of view in depth.
• surveyA research method that asks a group of people the same set of questions, through a questionnaire or a structured interview, to collect comparable data.
• variableA characteristic that can take different values from case to case, such as age, income, education level or attitude, and that researchers measure and compare.
• samplingThe process of selecting a smaller group of people or cases from a larger population so that the researcher can study them and draw conclusions.
• hypothesisA testable statement that predicts a relationship between two or more variables, written before the data are collected and then supported or rejected by the evidence.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

• quantitative research · Software Engineering
• quantitative research · UX/UI Design
• quantitative research · Marketing

More terms: Research Methods

• ethnography
• participant observation
• semi-structured interview
• operationalise
• validity
• reliability
• informed consent
• focus group
• case study
• secondary data
• fieldwork
• respondent