univariaten

Univariaten is a term used in statistics to denote the analysis of a single variable within a dataset. It describes and summarizes the properties of that variable without considering relationships with other variables. In many contexts, univariaten is used interchangeably with univariate analysis, though univariate is the more common English form.

Techniques and measures focus on describing the variable’s distribution, central tendency, and dispersion. For quantitative variables, descriptive statistics include the mean, median, and mode; measures of spread such as range, interquartile range, variance, and standard deviation; and distribution characteristics like skewness and kurtosis. Graphical tools commonly used are histograms, box plots, and density plots. For categorical variables, frequency counts, relative frequencies, and the mode provide a summary of the data.

Inferential aspects of univariaten involve making statements about the underlying population from which the sample is drawn. This includes confidence intervals for a population mean and one-sample tests such as the t-test or nonparametric equivalents for data that do not meet normality assumptions. When assessing a single variable’s distribution, goodness-of-fit tests may evaluate whether the data follow a specified theoretical distribution.

Applications and limitations: Univariaten serves as a fundamental step in data analysis, useful in quality control, epidemiology, social sciences, and any field requiring simple, first-pass summaries. However, it cannot reveal relationships between variables or causal interactions, and results can be influenced by outliers and measurement scale.