Statistics is a mathematical science pertaining to collection, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data as well as drawing valid conclusions and making reasonable decisions on the basis of such analysis.
In a narrower sense the term is used to denote the data themselves or numbers derived from data as, for example, averages. Thus we speak of employment statistics, accident statistics, etc.
It is applicable to a wide variety of academic disciplines from the physical and social sciences to the humanities, as well as to business, government, medicine and industry.
Statistical methods can be used to summarize or describe a collection of data; this is called descriptive statistics. In addition, patterns in the data may be modeled in a way that accounts for randomness and uncertainty in the observations, to draw inferences about the process or population being studied; this is called inferential statistics. Both descriptive and inferential statistics can be considered part of applied statistics. The discipline of mathematical statistics is concerned with the theoretical basis of the subject. The word statistics is also the plural of statistic (singular), which refers to the result of applying a statistical algorithm to a set of data.
2006-07-27
01:13:33
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2 answers
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nasiaq
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