There are various ways we can analyse the results from quantitative research surveys.
A straightforward descriptive analysis will tell you the number of people that gave each answer, broken down in any way you wish, such as by age, gender, ethnic group and so on. This type of analysis provides a summarised description of the results in an easily accessible format.
Inferential analysis goes further by extrapolating trends and probabilities from the results. Essentially, it tells you what the results infer or imply. For example, it may tell you that male respondents are likely to answer a particular question in a certain way, or that people of a certain age or background are likely to have a particular attitude towards a topic. This type of analysis enables you to draw some conclusions and predictions from the data.
To help us crunch the numbers and provide meaningful data, we use the widely recognised SPSS Statistics software package.