Is a survey qualitative or quantitative? Both - it depends on the question. The two question types, with examples, and how to design a survey that does both.
It is the most common question in survey research, and the answer is not one or the other. A survey is an instrument; whether the data it produces is qualitative or quantitative depends entirely on the question. This page gives the direct answer, shows the two kinds of survey question with examples, and explains how to design a survey that does both well.
The short answer
A survey's closed-ended questions — ratings, multiple choice, yes/no — produce quantitative data. Its open-ended questions produce qualitative data. Most surveys carry both. The instrument is neither qualitative nor quantitative; the question type is.
The quantitative side
Rating scales, multiple choice, yes/no, ranking. They constrain the answer to a value you can count and compare across a group.
The qualitative side
"Tell us why," "describe what changed." They invite an answer in the respondent's own words — the reason behind the number.
The answer
The question assumes a survey must be one or the other. It does not. A survey is a container; the data type is set by the questions inside it.
When it is quantitative
When the question is closed-ended — a 1-to-5 scale, a multiple choice, a yes/no — the answer is a number or a fixed category. That data is quantitative: it can be counted, averaged, and compared across every respondent.
When it is qualitative
When the question is open-ended — "what would you change?", "why did you rate it that way?" — the answer is in words. That data is qualitative: it carries the reason and the context, and it is read by coding, not counting.
So is survey data qualitative or quantitative?
Usually both. Most real surveys mix closed and open questions, which means one instrument produces both kinds of data. The useful question is not which type your survey is — it is whether the two kinds of answer stay linked to the same respondent.
Survey questions
A survey's data type is decided one question at a time. The table sets the two kinds of survey question side by side; the examples show a matched pair from three kinds of program.
| Dimension | Quantitative survey question | Qualitative survey question |
|---|---|---|
| Form | Closed-ended — fixed options the respondent picks from. | Open-ended — a free-text box in the respondent's own words. |
| Examples | "Rate your confidence 1 to 5." "Did you complete the program? Yes / No." | "What helped you most?" "What would you change, and why?" |
| Data it produces | A number or a category — countable, averageable. | Words — read by coding into themes, not by counting. |
| Best for | Measuring how many and how much; comparing groups. | Understanding why; surfacing what you did not think to ask. |
| Its limit | Cannot capture a reason that was not built into the options. | Slower to total; needs coding before it can be compared. |
A matched pair, by program type
Customer experience
Quantitative question
"How likely are you to recommend us, 0 to 10?"
Qualitative question
"What is the main reason for your score?"
The score ranks the relationship. The reason says what to fix.
Training
Quantitative question
"Rate your confidence to apply this skill, 1 to 5."
Qualitative question
"What part of the training changed that confidence?"
The rating shows the gain. The answer shows what produced it.
Scholarships and grants
Quantitative question
"Score this application on each rubric criterion, 1 to 5."
Qualitative question
"In a sentence, what carried the score?"
The score ranks the applicant. The sentence makes it defensible.
Designing a survey that does both
Most surveys already carry both kinds of question. What they lose is the link between them. Three design choices keep the number and the reason working together.
Design choice 01
Each closed question that matters gets an open question beside it. "Rate your confidence" pairs with "What changed it?" The number and the reason are collected in the same moment, from the same person.
Why it matters
A score with no paired question can never explain itself later.
Design choice 02
A rating and the open answer beside it only mean something together if they stay linked to the same person. Build the survey around a participant ID, not a fresh anonymous export each round.
Why it matters
Without a shared ID, matching the two halves later is approximate at best.
Design choice 03
A closed answer is scored instantly; an open answer used to wait for manual coding. Reading the open answers as they land — coded against a fixed scheme — is what keeps the qualitative half from going unread.
Why it matters
An open-ended question nobody reads is the same as a question you never asked.
A survey that pairs its questions, links them to one record, and reads both halves on arrival is a mixed-method instrument by design. For how the two halves are then read as one finding, see qualitative and quantitative analysis.
Designing a survey that does both
Most surveys already carry both kinds of question. What they lose is the link between them. Three design choices keep the number and the reason working together.
Design choice 01
Each closed question that matters gets an open question beside it. "Rate your confidence" pairs with "What changed it?" The number and the reason are collected in the same moment, from the same person.
Why it matters
A score with no paired question can never explain itself later.
Design choice 02
A rating and the open answer beside it only mean something together if they stay linked to the same person. Build the survey around a participant ID, not a fresh anonymous export each round.
Why it matters
Without a shared ID, matching the two halves later is approximate at best.
Design choice 03
A closed answer is scored instantly; an open answer used to wait for manual coding. Reading the open answers as they land — coded against a fixed scheme — is what keeps the qualitative half from going unread.
Why it matters
An open-ended question nobody reads is the same as a question you never asked.
A survey that pairs its questions, links them to one record, and reads both halves on arrival is a mixed-method instrument by design. For how the two halves are then read as one finding, see qualitative and quantitative analysis.
FAQ
A survey is neither by default — it is an instrument, and the data type is set by the questions inside it. Closed-ended questions (rating scales, multiple choice, yes/no) produce quantitative data. Open-ended questions produce qualitative data. Most surveys carry both, so most surveys are both qualitative and quantitative.
Yes — and most are. A single survey routinely mixes closed questions, which yield numbers, and open questions, which yield words. That makes it a mixed-method instrument. The thing that decides whether it works is not the mix itself but whether the number and the open answer stay linked to the same respondent.
It depends on the question that produced it. Data from a rating scale or a multiple-choice question is quantitative — countable and comparable. Data from an open-text question is qualitative — read by coding into themes. A typical survey export contains both, side by side, one column per question.
Surveys are often used in quantitative research because closed-ended questions scale well and support statistical comparison. But a survey is not inherently quantitative. A survey built mostly from open-ended questions is a qualitative instrument, and a survey that mixes both supports mixed-method research. The method follows the questions, not the format.
A quantitative survey question is closed-ended: it gives the respondent a fixed set of options to choose from. Rating scales (1 to 5), multiple choice, yes/no, and ranking questions are all quantitative. The answer is a number or a category that can be counted, averaged, and compared across every respondent.
A qualitative survey question is open-ended: it invites the respondent to answer in their own words. "What would you change?" and "Why did you rate it that way?" are qualitative questions. The answer is text, read by coding into themes — it carries the reason and the context a fixed-option question cannot.
A matched pair from a training survey: the quantitative question is "Rate your confidence to apply this skill, 1 to 5"; the qualitative question beside it is "What part of the training changed that confidence?" The first measures the gain; the second explains it. Pairing the two is what makes a survey answer both how much and why.
The same answer as a survey: a questionnaire is an instrument, and its data type depends on the questions. A questionnaire of rating scales is quantitative; one of open prompts is qualitative; one that mixes both produces both kinds of data. "Questionnaire" and "survey" are used interchangeably for this purpose.
Yes — a survey built entirely from closed-ended questions produces only quantitative data. It will scale and compare cleanly, but it cannot explain its own results: every number it returns generates a "why" the survey has no question to answer. That is the trade-off of a quantitative-only survey, and the reason most teams add at least one open question.
Pair every closed question that matters with an open one beside it, so the number and its reason are collected together. Link both to a participant ID, so the pair stays joined to the same respondent. And read the open answers on arrival, coded against a fixed scheme, so the qualitative half is not left unanalyzed. Those three choices turn a survey into a mixed-method instrument.
Analyze the closed questions with descriptive statistics — totals, averages, distributions — and the open questions by coding the text into themes. The step that matters is reading the two together: a low score is only useful when you can see the open answer from the same respondent that explains it. Keep both on one record so that read is a query, not a reconciliation.
Neither — they do different jobs. Quantitative questions measure how many and how much and compare cleanly across a group. Qualitative questions explain why and surface what you did not think to ask. A survey of only one kind is half-blind. The stronger survey uses both, and keeps each pair of answers attached to the same respondent.
Bring a survey
A working session, not a demo. Bring a real survey — the rating scales and the open-ended questions beside them. We put every score and its written answer on one respondent record and read both, live, on arrival.
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