Question

Choose the correct option regarding mode of a data set.

Statement I: Numerical data can have a mode, but categorical data cannot have any mode.

Statement II: The mode is always one of the values of the data set.

• A. Both the statements are correct.
• B. Only statement II is correct.

Answer 1

The correct option is B Only statement II is correct.

Let's take an example to understand the provided statements.
Consider the following data set of alphabets:

D

C

B

C

A

By arranging them in alphabetical order we get,

A

B

C

C

D

We find that the alphabet C is occurring 2 times.

Hence, the mode of the data set is C.

Here, the data set contains non-numerical characters, i.e., it is categorical data, but it has a mode.
Secondly, the mode is a character that is present in the given data set.

$\therefore$ Statement I is wrong, whereas statement II is correct.