Course Glossary of Terms

A
 Age-adjustment:  A statistical process applied to rates of disease, death, injury, or other
outcomes that allows populations with different age distributions or age structures to be more
fairly compared
 Analytics: The systematic process of discovering, interpreting, and communicating significant
patterns in data 
 Attribute: A characteristic or quality of data used to label a column in a table

B
 Bureaucracy: A complex organization that has multiple subunits and many layers of
administration systems and processes;  all governments are bureaucracies

C
 Census:  Precise and full count of the size, composition, and characteristics of a population
both in large and small geographical units
 Context: The environment (social, economic, political) or condition in which something exists
or happens
 Continuous variable:  Variables in a data set for which the values will be numeric and
represent the actual number, count, value of the variable. 
 Core functions of public administration: Planning; organizing; staffing, directing,
coordinating, reporting; budgeting

D
 Data: Plural of datum, which is a single piece of information.  Data are pieces of similar 
information, often expressed as numbers for use in analysis, calculations, or reasoning
 Data analysis: The collection, transformation, and organization of data in order to draw
conclusions, make predictions, and drive informed decision-making
 Data analyst: Someone who collects, transforms, and organizes data in order to draw
conclusions, make predictions, and drive informed decision-making
 Data analytics: The science (including techniques and processes) of analyzing raw data (pieces
of information) to make conclusions about that data
 Data-driven decision-making: Using the results of data analysis to guide strategy, planning,
policy design, resource allocation, and other decision-making
 Data ecosystem: The various elements that interact with one another in order to produce,
manage, store, organize, analyze, and share data
 Data science: A field of study that combines domain expertise, computer programming skills,
and knowledge of mathematics and statistics to organizes and analyze data to extract
meaningful insights and information
 Data strategy: The management of the people, processes, and tools used in data analysis
 Data visualization: The visual representation of data in a chart, figure, diagram, graph or other
type of picture
  Database: A collection of data organized in a systematic way and stored in a computer system
 Dataset: A collection of data that can be manipulated or analyzed as one unit 
 Demographic processes:  Fertility; mortality; migration.  These three processes direct the size,
composition and other dynamics of populations

F
 Formula: A set of instructions used to perform a calculation using the data in a spreadsheet
 Function: A preset command that automatically performs a specified process or task using the
data in a spreadsheet

G
 Gap analysis: A method for examining and evaluating the current state of a process in order to
identify opportunities for improvement in the future

I
 Infant mortality rate: A statistic that represents the number of infants that die before their
first birthday per 1,000 live births in a population.

L
 Likert scale variable: A type of ordinal scale variable used in surveys to measure
attitudes/opinions in which respondents are presented a statement and asked to indicate how
much they agree or disagree with the statement

O
 Observation: The attributes that describe a piece of data contained in a row of a table
 Ordinal variable:  A numeric variable in which there is some implied ordering or ranking in the
values

P
 Public administration:  The business of running a government; the work and means by which
the purposes and goals of government are implemented and achieved.
 Public goods: Goods and services financed and provided by governments without profit that
provide some social benefit, are non-rival (consumption by one person does not reduce
availability to another), and are non-exclusionary (widely available to everyone)
 Public policy:  The formal rules, laws, regulations, court rulings and informal programs,
guidelines, recommendations and other courses of action made by a governmental entity,
including legislatures, courts, and executive agencies.
  Public sector:  The sector of the economy that involves governmental activities and actions,
including the provision of governmental goods and services 

Q
 Query: A request for data or information from a database
 Query language: A computer programming language used to communicate with a database

R
 Root cause: The fundamental reason why a problem occurs or set of social
conditions/circumstances exists

S
 Stakeholders: People and organizations who have an interest in an issue or outcome 
 Survey:  A research method used for collecting data from a predetermined and clearly defined
group of respondents to gather information on specific topics.
 Survey research:  The systematic collection of information from a sample or entire population
or identifiable group through a survey, 
 Survey codebook:  A document that provides a roadmap for understanding the content of a
survey and for analyzing the variables in the survey dataset; a survey codebook includes
variable names, the values each variable can includes, the type of variable (numeric,
alphabetical, or alphanumeric), and the actual working of each question/item in the survey.
 Survey codebook report:  A document that includes the survey codebook and also the results
for each item in the survey, typically presented as a frequency table.
 Survey sampling frame: The list or other source material of a population or group from which
a sample for a survey is drawn.
 Survey weights:  A correction technique used by survey data analysts to statistically adjust
survey data after they have been collected in order to improve the accuracy of the results when
generalized to the population from which the survey sample was drawn.

T
 Technical mindset: The ability to break things down into smaller steps or pieces and work with
them in an orderly and logical way
 Total dependency ratio:  An important population statistic that estimates the ratio of people
in a population who are not working or dependent compared to those who are working.  The
formula is (the number of people of the non-working ages of <15 and >64) divided by the
number of people in the working ages of 15 - 64 years.  The ratio represents the number of
people dependent upon every working person in the population.

V
  Variables:  A characteristic, number, or quantity that can be measured or counted, and will
vary in its value across people or units of observation.  Variables can be numeric, alphabetical,
or alphanumeric.
 Visualization: (Refer to data visualization) 
 Vital registration systems:  Governmental data systems that systematically collect and
organize information on all key demographic events in a population, including births and
deaths.

W
 Wrong pockets problem: When a governmental unit bears the costs of providing some type of
good or service but does not receive the primary benefit of doing so