ABSTRACT
Many research studies in the social sciences use observations or measures that are in the form of count data. Whenever data is obtained from a population which can be thought of as discrete in nature, then any statistical inferences we make using data such as frequency counts, percentages or proportions are, in fact, inferences that involve count data. For example, if we were interested in a possible difference between the proportions (or percentages) of male and female students studying Advanced Level (A-level) science subjects, then the parameters about which we would make inferences are the population proportions and data sampled from the population would be in the form of counts or frequencies.
