Difference between Quality and Quantity

Key Difference: Quality is a measure of excellence or of a state of being. It describes something, either of how it was made, or how if is as compared to others. Quantity, on the other hand, is the extent, size, or sum of something. It is countable or measurable, and can be expressed as a numerical value.

Quality and Quantity are two terms that one often comes across, especially in business, research, physics, and even in everyday life. The main difference between quality and quantity is the fact that quality refers to the characteristic or feature of something, whereas quantity refers to the numerical value of something.

Quality is subjective, whereas quantity is not. Quality is subjective to each individual’s opinion. One person might think that something is of great quality, whereas another might think that it is of low quality. However, one cannot dispute quantity. If there are five things, then there are five things. One cannot claim that there are four or six.

Basically, quality is a measure of excellence or of a state of being. It describes something, either of how it was made, or how if is as compared to others. Quantity, on the other hand, is the extent, size, or sum of something. It is countable or measurable, and can be expressed as a numerical value.

In business, there has been a continuous discussion on the basis of Quality vs Quantity. There are many bosses or managers who focus on quantity as opposed to quality of work. While, there are others who want both quality and quantity in the shortest amount of time possible. There are very few that prefer quality over quantity.

Comparison between Quality and Quantity:

	Quality	Quantity
Definition (Merriam-Webster)	A characteristic or feature that someone or something has: something that can be noticed as a part of a person or thing. How good or bad something is.	An amount or number of something.
Description	Quality is a perceptual, conditional, and somewhat subjective attribute and may be understood differently by different people.	Quantity is a property that can exist as a magnitude or multitude. Quantities can be compared in terms of "more," "less," or "equal," or by assigning a numerical value in terms of a unit of measurement.
Subjectivity	Is subjective	Is not subjective
Refers to	The characteristic or feature of something	Refers to its amount or number
Example	The dress is beautiful. The TV has great picture quality. The students are smart.	The dress cost $4.99. The TV has a 1080p resolution. There are 30 students in the class.