What is Statistics?
Statistic is a branch of mathematics that involves the collection, analysis, interpretation, presentation, and organization of data. It encompasses a wide range of techniques and methods for understanding and making sense of numerical information. They are utilized to assess the corresponding population parameters.
Characteristics of Statistics
- Statistics deals with numerical data, which can be quantitative (numerical) or qualitative (categorical).
- Data in statistics exhibit variability, meaning they can vary from one observation to another.
- Statistics involves estimating unknown population parameters from sample data.
- Demonstrative examples of statistics are as follows: the sample mean, the sample standard deviation, the sample proportion, and the sample correlation coefficient.
Statistic vs Parameter
In the statistical and data analytics areas, parameters and statistics are the most widely used two terms. Statistic is a numerical value calculated from a sample of data, whereas, Parameter is a numerical value that describes a characteristic of an entire population.
This article will provide the meaning and applications of parameters and statistics and the distinctions between them.