Qualitative research is about issues, understanding phenomena, and answering questions by analyzing and making sense of unstructured data. From health studies to academic research, market research and stakeholder consultation, qualitative research happens nearly every workplace and study environment, nearly day.

It is characterized by its aims, which relate to understanding some aspect of social like, and its methods which generate words, rather than numbers, as data for analysis.

Qualitative methods generally aim to understand the experiences and attitudes of patients, the community or health care workers. These methods aim to answer questions about the 'what', 'how' or 'why' of a phenomenon rather than the 'how many' or 'how much', which are answered by quantitative methods. If the aim is to understand how a community or individuals within it perceive a particular issue, then qualitative methods are often appropriate.