Which of the following is a characteristic of nominal data?

Nominal data is defined by its use of categories that do not have a specific order or ranking. This type of data is often used to classify items into distinct categories based on qualitative attributes. For example, categories such as "gender," "color," or "type of pet" are all nominal because they simply indicate different groups without implying any hierarchy or quantity between them.

This lack of an inherent order makes nominal data unique among other types of data, such as ordinal or interval data, which involve some level of measurement or ranking system. In contrast to nominal data, ordinal data allows for ranking but does not specify how much difference exists between ranks, while interval data permits both ranking and equal spacing between values. Thus, the defining aspect of nominal data is its categorization without any qualitative or quantitative relationship, confirming that it represents categories without a specific order.