What is Statistics?
Statistics can simply be defined as the science of effectively using the numerical data which is related to the groups of individuals or experiments. Statistics not only deals with the collection, analysis and then interpretation of data, but it also facilitates the planning for collection of the data, in terms of the design of experiments and surveys.
A statistician is a person who is particularly expert in the field of statistics. Statistician can find out various ways for successfully implementing the applications of statistical analysis. Usually, such people gain the expertise in statistics after working in any of a number of fields. Another discipline known as mathematical statistics, is mainly concerned with the theoretical aspects of the subject.
The term statistics can either be used as a singular or plural. In the singular form, statistic can be seen as a quantity (just like a mean) that is calculated from a set of given data, but in this article we will discuss statistics as a mathematical science.
Scope of statistics
Some thinkers consider statistics as a mathematical science pertaining to the collection of data, then analysing and interpretating it and finally presentating the data. But some other thinkers consider it as a branch of mathematics, which is mainly concerned with the collection and interpretation of data. But in the actual world, statistics is generally considered to be a unique and distinguished mathematical science rather than merely a branch of mathematics, simply because of its empirical roots and its major focus on applications.
Statisticians also improve the quality of the data with the survey sampling and design of experiments. More importantly, statistics also provides the tools for forecasting and prediction using data and various statistical models. Actually, statistics can be applied to a large number of academic disciplines, including government, business, natural and social sciences.
Descriptive and inferential statistics
A branch of statistics that can be used to describe or summarize a collection of data is known as descriptive statistics. This kind of statistics is very useful in the research methodology. In addition, various patterns present in the data can be easily modelled in a way that simply accounts for the uncertainty and randomness in the observations, and then it can be used to draw the inferences about some process or about some population that is being studied; this branch of statistics is called inferential statistics.
Inference is a very crucial element of scientific research, as it provides a prediction (that is based upon the data) towards which a theory logically leads. In order to prove the guiding theory, the formulated predictions can further be tested, as a part of the scientific method. If the inference proves to be true, then the descriptive statistics applied on the new data further increase the credibility of that hypothesis. Both inferential statistics and descriptive statistics (as a part of predictive statistics) together create the field of applied statistics. The American Statistical Association has ranked Fisher, Rao and Deming as the greatest statisticians in history.
Category: Science