<P> While the concept of data is commonly associated with scientific research, data is collected by a huge range of organizations and institutions, including businesses (e.g., sales data, revenue, profits, stock price), governments (e.g., crime rates, unemployment rates, literacy rates) and non-governmental organizations (e.g., censuses of the number of homeless people by non-profit organizations). </P> <P> Data is measured, collected and reported, and analyzed, whereupon it can be visualized using graphs, images or other analysis tools . Data as a general concept refers to the fact that some existing information or knowledge is represented or coded in some form suitable for better usage or processing . Raw data ("unprocessed data") is a collection of numbers or characters before it has been "cleaned" and corrected by researchers . Raw data needs to be corrected to remove outliers or obvious instrument or data entry errors (e.g., a thermometer reading from an outdoor Arctic location recording a tropical temperature). Data processing commonly occurs by stages, and the "processed data" from one stage may be considered the "raw data" of the next stage . Field data is raw data that is collected in an uncontrolled "in situ" environment . Experimental data is data that is generated within the context of a scientific investigation by observation and recording . Data has been described as the new oil of the digital economy . </P> <P> The first English use of the word "data" is from the 1640s . Using the word "data" to mean "transmittable and storable computer information" was first done in 1946 . The expression "data processing" was first used in 1954 . </P> <P> The Latin word data is the plural of datum, "(thing) given," neuter past participle of dare "to give". Data may be used as a plural noun in this sense, with some writers--usually scientific writers--in the 20th century using datum in the singular and data for plural . However, in non-specialist, everyday writing, "data" is most commonly used in the singular, as a mass noun (like "information", "sand" or "rain"). </P>

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