statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a s ...

and

econometrics Econometrics is an application of statistical methods to economic data in order to give empirical content to economic relationships. M. Hashem Pesaran (1987). "Econometrics", '' The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics'', v. 2, p. 8 p. 8 ...

, cross-sectional data is a type of

data Data ( , ) are a collection of discrete or continuous values that convey information, describing the quantity, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of symbols that may be further interpreted for ...

collected by observing many subjects (such as individuals, firms, countries, or regions) at a single point or period of time. Analysis of cross-sectional data usually consists of comparing the differences among selected subjects, typically with no regard to differences in time. For example, if we want to measure current obesity levels in a population, we could draw a sample of 1,000 people randomly from that population (also known as a cross section of that population), measure their weight and height, and calculate what percentage of that sample is categorized as obese. This cross-sectional sample provides us with a snapshot of that population, at that one point in time. Note that we do not know based on one cross-sectional sample if obesity is increasing or decreasing; we can only describe the current proportion. Cross-sectional data differs from ''

time series In mathematics, a time series is a series of data points indexed (or listed or graphed) in time order. Most commonly, a time series is a sequence taken at successive equally spaced points in time. Thus it is a sequence of discrete-time data. ...

'' data, in which the same small-scale or aggregate entity is observed at various points in time. Another type of data, ''

panel data In statistics and econometrics, panel data and longitudinal data are both multi-dimensional data involving measurements over time. Panel data is a subset of longitudinal data where observations are for the same subjects each time. Time series and ...

'' (or ''longitudinal data''), combines both cross-sectional and time series data aspects and looks at how the subjects (firms, individuals, etc.) change over a time series. Panel data deals with the observations on the same subjects in different times.

Panel analysis Panel (data) analysis is a statistical method, widely used in social science, epidemiology, and econometrics to analyze two-dimensional (typically cross sectional and longitudinal) panel data. The data are usually collected over time and over the s ...

uses panel data to examine changes in variables over time and its differences in variables between selected subjects. Variants include ''pooled cross-sectional data'', which deals with the observations on the same subjects in different times. In a ''rolling cross-section'', both the presence of an individual in the sample and the time at which the individual is included in the sample are determined randomly. For example, a political poll may decide to interview 1000 individuals. It first selects these individuals randomly from the entire population. It then assigns a random date to each individual. This is the random date that the individual will be interviewed, and thus included in the survey. Cross-sectional data can be used in

cross-sectional regression In statistics and econometrics, a cross-sectional regression is a type of Regression analysis, regression in which the Dependent and independent variables, explained and explanatory variables are all associated with the same single period or point i ...

, which is regression analysis of cross-sectional data. For example, the consumption expenditures of various individuals in a fixed month could be regressed on their incomes, accumulated wealth levels, and their various

demographic Demography () is the statistics, statistical study of human populations: their size, composition (e.g., ethnic group, age), and how they change through the interplay of fertility (births), mortality (deaths), and migration. Demographic analy ...

features to find out how differences in those features lead to differences in consumers’ behavior.

References

Further reading