Is number of birth a ratio scale measurement?

Answer 1

Birth by itself would not be a ratio scale measurement. It would merely be a count. To have a ratio, an item must be in relation to another item. Here are some examples as statements:

(General count statistic: A hospital oversaw 300 births in a 1-year period.)

(Ratio: Of 15,000 women in a community, 300 babies were born during a 1-year period.)

(Ratio: From 2,079 patients admitted to the hospital in that year, 300 were women in labor.)

Of the 300 births, half were born to Caucasian women, and half to Black women of Jamaican descent.

Of the 300 births, 245 babies and mothers had no birth problems.

Of the 300 births, 10 babies were born breech.

Of the 300 births, 45 were delivered by C-section.

Of the 300 births, 102 showed signs of maternal drug use.

Of the 300 births, 12 babies had an Apgar of 3 at 1 minute which improved to 5 at 2 minutes.

Of the 300 births, 112 babies experienced very mild jaundice within 12 hours.

Of the 300 births, 2 babies developed serious jaundice within 12 hours.

Each of these could be written as (x number): 300, example 102:300. The colon would mean out of or from this number.

If you only present the "counts" without the total stated, that's just counting, not a ratio. For example:

300 babies were born. That gives no ratio information. It's just a count.