"Data" values are often stored in
files that are just rows of numbers suitable for analysis with
statistical software -- not for reading or use directly by humans.
Social
science data are the raw material out of which social and economic
statistics are produced.
Social science data
originate from social research methodologies or administrative
records, while statistics are produced from data. Data are the
information collected and stored at the level at
which the
unit of analysis
was observed. Summaries of these
data are usually statistics. Data must be processed to be of practical
use. This compilation is accomplished with statistical software, which
reads the raw data from a computer file.
