A list of US states is an example of what type of data?

The classification of a list of US states as nominal data is accurate because nominal data refers to categories without any inherent order or ranking. In this context, the names of states simply serve to label different categories; for example, 'Florida' is not greater or lesser than 'Texas.' Each state name is unique but does not have a numeric value or an order that applies to their labels.

Nominal data is primarily used for classification purposes and is the most basic level of data measurement. It can include various categories of qualitative data that cannot be arranged in a meaningful way based on magnitude or ranking.

In contrast, interval data would require a scale with meaningful distances between values, ordinal data indicates a rank order with meaningful progression but no absolute zero, and ratio data encompasses all the properties of interval data with the addition of a true zero point, allowing for meaningful comparison of ratios. Since state names only categorize without any ranking or measurable distance, the label of nominal is indeed the most fitting.