Residual category

Under a residual category or residual category is understood in the statistics (eg., Within the empirical research ) or methods of classifying a category to be detected in all objects which can be uniquely assigned to them by the exception handler is no other particular class (ie Exceptions that are not confirmed by a rule).

A large number of objects in a residual class usually indicates an inadequate classification system . Some critics of the use of statistics in social research argue that no classification scheme can be established within the social sciences that does without a residual category.