In mathematics, a univariate object is an expression, equation, function or polynomial involving only one variable.
In statistics, a univariate distribution characterizes one variable, although it can be applied in other ways as well.
For example, univariate data are composed of a single scalar component.
In some cases, the terminology is ambiguous, since the values within a univariate time series may be treated using certain types of multivariate statistical analyses and may be represented using multivariate distributions.
In addition to the question of scaling, a criterion (variable) in univariate statistics can be described by two important measures (also key figures or parameters): Location & Variation.