What type of data is described as categories only with no inherent order?

The correct choice is nominal data, which is a type of categorical data that represents distinct categories without any quantitative or ordered relationship between them. Each category in nominal data is unique and simply serves to label different groups or types. For example, categories such as "red," "blue," and "green" are purely labels and cannot be ranked or ordered because there is no meaningful way to say that one color is "greater" than another.

In contrast, ordinal data does have an inherent order or ranking, which is important for differentiating it from nominal data. Examples of ordinal data include rankings like "first," "second," and "third." Meanwhile, interval data refers to numerical data where intervals between values are meaningful, but there is no true zero point, such as temperature. Ratio data also consists of numerical data but includes a true zero point, allowing for the comparison of absolute magnitudes, as seen in measurements like height or weight.