Can Pearson Correlation Be Used for Categorical Data?

For a dichotomous categorical variable and a continuous variable you can calculate a Pearson correlation if the categorical variable has a 0/1-coding for the categories. ... But when you have more than two categories for the categorical variable the Pearson correlation is not appropriate anymore.

Can correlation coefficient be used for categorical data?

Further, if either variable of the pair is categorical, we can't use the correlation coefficient. We will have to turn to other metrics. If x and y are both categorical, we can try Cramer's V or the phi coefficient. If x is continuous and y is binary, we can use the point-biserial correlation coefficient.

What type of data is used for Pearson's correlation?

The Pearson correlation method is the most common method to use for numerical variables; it assigns a value between − 1 and 1, where 0 is no correlation, 1 is total positive correlation, and − 1 is total negative correlation.