One of the two fixed, perpendicular reference lines in a 2D graph (generally referred to as the x-axis and the y-axis).

A chart that presents categorical data as rectangular bars proportional to the values they represent. The bars may be horizontal or vertical.

A data distribution that has two peaks.

See class intervals.

A graphical representation of the dispersion of a numerical dataset that indicates the median, quartiles and range.

See box-and-whisker plot.

See clinical breakpoint.

A subset of a dataset representing one of the bars on a histogram. The data is subdivided according to the value of the independent variable and, generally, each class interval is of equal width.

A not-for-profit organisation fostering excellence in laboratory medicine, creating best practice standards and guidelines for antimicrobial susceptibility testing and quality management systems.

Numeric data or variables which can take on any value within a range. For example, temperature. 

The relationship between two numerical variables.

A value used to split continuous data into categories; for example, into resistant and susceptible isolates.

Any observation or set of observations or measurements that represent attributes about an entity, also referred to as a data unit. 

Analysis of data that helps describe, show or summarise it in a meaningful way.

Divide a sample into categories based on the values of a particular variable.

Numeric data or variables that can be counted and that can only take finite values.

Graphical representations of the amount of error in or uncertainty of a measurement displayed on a graph.

A list or table that displays the frequency of each outcome in a sample dataset; for example, bacteria identified in isolates.

Antimicrobial resistance that arises through one or more mutations in the genes of the bacteria concerned.

A computational framework for the capture and analysis of geospatial data.

Data that combines local (geographic) information with information about a phenomenon; for example, the proportion of tested isolates in each geographical region that are found to be resistant.

A system for standardising and sharing surveillance data on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) worldwide.

A graph like a bar chart that displays the distribution of the values of a numerical variable that have been grouped into ranges (e.g. age ranges).

Analytical tools and tests used to make predictions about the population using data from a sample. 

The sum of all values divided by the number of values, also known as the ‘average’.

The middle value in an ordered set of values.

A distribution with more than two peaks.

A public health surveillance system for tracking and monitoring the prevalence of AMR in the US over time.

The type of correlation in which, as the values of one variable increase, the values of the other variable decrease.

Categorical data that is unordered, that is, the meaning does not change if the categories are re-ordered. Examples include gender and cattle breed.

A symmetrical data distribution in which the mean, median and mode are equal; informally known as a ‘bell curve’. 

Data that can be represented as counts or measurements.

World Organisation for Animal Health. The intergovernmental organisation responsible for improving the health of livestock and other animals worldwide. The acronym is derived from the original French name of the organisation, Office International des Epizooties.

Categorical data that can be ordered and where that order is ranked. Examples include age range and socioeconomic status.

Points in a data distribution that differ significantly in value from the bulk of the distribution, i.e. that lie further away from the mean than almost all other points.

Antimicrobial resistance that is achieved without any genetic change to the bacteria concerned, e.g. as a result of persistence or the growth of a biofilm.

A circular plot of a single variable in which the proportion of each value of the variable is shown as the arc length (and therefore angle or area) of the respective ‘slice’ of the ‘pie’.

Mathematically, part of a number in comparison to the whole.

A graph of points in which each point represents the value of a pair of variables (plotted on the x- and y-axis, respectively). Used to visualise the relationship between the variables.

Flocks used for the early detection of mosquito-borne pathogens that infect the birds without causing symptoms.

A distribution where the data points cluster more toward one side of the scale than the other, creating a curve that is not symmetrical.

In statistics, how different the data points in a distribution are, that is, how closely clustered they are to the mean.

A measure of the dispersion of a set of data points, as measured by their distance from the mean, and defined as the square root of the mean of the squares (r.m.s) of those distances. The square root of the variance.

A distribution with a single mode, that is, one with a single most common value. A normal distribution is unimodal.

Any characteristic or attribute of a data unit that can be measured.

A measure of the dispersion of a set of data points, as measured by their distance from the mean, and defined as the mean of the squares of those distances.

The lines drawn on a box and whisker plot between each quartile and the nearest end of the distribution (minimum or maximum).