Univariate and Bivariate Statistical Analyses

Univariate Statistical Analyses:

Univariate analysis is the simplest form of analyzing data. “Uni” means

“one”, so in other words your data has only one variable. It doesn’t deal
with causes or relationships (unlike regression ) and it’s major purpose is
to describe; It takes data, summarizes that data and finds patterns in the
data
Univariate statistical analyses are data analysis procedures using only
one variable. A variable measures a single attribute of an entity or
individual (e.g. height) and may take different values from one individual
to another. Univariate statistical analyses may consist of descriptive or
inferential procedures.( Inferential statistics use measurements from the sample of
subjects in the experiment to compare the treatment groups and make generalizations
about the larger population of subjects.)

Descriptive procedures typically describe the distribution of a variable

using statistics or graphical representations. Inferential procedures are
testing hypotheses about variable and aim to estimate the values of
descriptive measures such as the mean, median, standard deviation, etc.
for the general population (parameters).
Therefore, Univariate is a term commonly used in statistics to describe a
type of data which consists of observations on only a single characteristic
or attribute. A simple example of univariate data would be the salaries
of workers in industry, age, height, weight, satisfaction, consumer
perceptionetc.

Bivariate Statistical Analyses

It is a study of two variables to find the relationship between them. The
two variables depend on each other. One is Independent variable and the
other is dependant variable.
Bivariate statistical analyses are data analysis procedures using two
variables (e.g. self-efficacy and academic performance). Bivariate analyses
is typically to compare or examine the relationship between two variables.
For instance,
researchers may examine whether student self-efficacy in mathematics is
a significant predictor of mathematics standardized test scores.
Another example is comparing academic performance across groups of
students receiving different modes of instruction (e.g. face to face versus
online), in which case the two variables are test scores and group
membership (e.g. face-to-face cohort or online cohort).

Bivariate Data: Examples, Definition and Analysis

In statistics, many bivariate data examples can be given to help you understand the
relationship between two variables and to grasp the idea behind the bivariate data
analysis definition and meaning.
Bivariate analysis is a statistical method that helps you study relationships
(correlation) between data sets. Many businesses, marketing, and social science
questions and problems could be solved using bivariate data sets.

On this page:

What is bivariate data? Definition.

Examples of bivariate data: with table.
Bivariate data analysis examples: including linear regression analysis, correlation
(relationship), distribution, and scatter plot.
Let’s define bivariate data:

We have bivariate data when we studying two variables. These variables are changing
and are compared to find the relationships between them.

For example, if you are studying a group of students to find out their average math
score and their age, you have two variables (math score and age).

If you are studying only one variable, for example only math score for these students,
then we have univariate data.

When we are examining bivariate data, the two variables could depend on each other.
One variable could influence another. In this case, we say that the bivariate data
has:

an independent variable and

a dependent variable.
A classical example of dependent and independent variables are age and heights of
the babies and toddlers. When age increases, the height also increases.

Let’s move on to some real-life and practical bivariate data examples.

Example 1:
Look at the following bivariate data table. It represents the age and average height of
a group of babies and kids.

Age Height (in cms)

3 months 58.5
6 months 64
9 months 68.5
1 years 74
2 years 81.2
3 years 89.1
4 years 95
5 years 102.5

Note:
Commonly, bivariate data is stored in a table with two columns.

There are 2 types of relationship between the dependent and independent variable:

A positive relationship (also called positive correlation) – that means if the

independent variable increases, then the dependent variable would also increase and
vice versa. The above example about the kids’ age and height is a classical positive
relationship.
A negative relationship (negative correlation) – when the independent variable
increases and the dependent variable decrease and vice versa. Example: when the
car age increases, the car price decreases.
So, we use bivariate data to compare two sets of data and to discover any
relationships between them.

Bivariate Data Analysis

Bivariate analysis studies the relationship between 2 variables and has many
practical uses in the real life.
It aims to find out whether there exists an association between the variables and
what is its strength.
Bivariate analysis also tests a hypothesis of association and causality. It also helps
to predict the values of a dependent variable based on the changes of an independent
variable.
Let’s see how the bivariate data work with linear regression models.
Example
Let’s say we have to study the relationship between the age and the systolic blood
pressure in a company. We have a sample of 10 workers aged thirty to fifty-five years.
The results are presented in the following bivariate data table.

Employee Age Systolic Blood Pressure

1 37 130

2 38 140

3 40 132

4 42 149

5 45 144

6 48 157

7 50 161

8 52 145

9 53 165

10 55 162

Now, we need to display this table graphically to be able to make some conclusions.

Bivariate data is most often displayed using a scatter plot.

This is a plot on a grid paper of y (y-axis) against x (x-axis) and indicates the
behavior of given data sets.
Scatter plot is one of the popular types of graphs that give us a much more clear
picture of a possible relationship between the variables.
Let’s build Scatter Plot based on the table above:

Bivariate Data Analysis Example - age against blood pressure

The above scatter plot illustrates that the values seem to group around a straight
line i.e it shows that there is a possible linear relationship between the age and
systolic blood pressure.
The above scatter plot illustrates that the values seem to group around a straight
line i.e it shows that there is a possible linear relationship between the age and
systolic blood pressure.