categorical data is a statistical data type consisting of categorical variables that are used to group certain characteristics and express them by descriptive names, rather than quantitatively. they are also known as qualitative data and are typically non-numerical entries that can be divided into groups. however, while categorical data might not be numerical, numbers can be used in the category. For example, "1" might be used to represent "male" and "2" to represent "female" in a data set. but these are still categorical data because they represent distinct categories and cannot be mathematically manipulated.