What is Statistics?

Statistics Is….
• Science and art of learning
through data
• Data are numbers with a context
 Probability
• Study of chance behavior
through data
 Sample vs. Population

• Population is the large group made up of

many individuals
• Sample is a smaller group of individuals
chosen from the population
 Where do you get good data?

• Internet websites that have collected it for

you (available data)
• www.statca.ca
• www.inegi.gob.mx
• www.fedstats.gov
• www.cdc.gov/nchs
• You can collect your own data using the
prescribed methods explained in this
course
 Some methods to collect data

• Surveys
• Observational studies
• Experiments

• Each of these will be studied in greater

detail later in the course in Unit 2
 Data Analysis

• Characteristics of an individual are known

as variables
• Objects described by a set of data are
known as individuals
 The 6 W’s & the H

• Who are the individuals that you have data

from
• What are the variables
• Why? (What is your underlying question)
• When?
• Where did you get the data from?
• How did you gather the data?
• By Whom was the data gathered?
 Types of Variables

• Categorical (Qualitative) Variables

• Describe a quality that the variables have, you
can easily split the data into categories

• Quantitative Variables
• Gives a numerical value for a variable (You
can take the average of them)
 Distribution of a Quantitative
Variable
• The pattern of variation of the numerical
values of a quantitative variable is known
as its distribution
• We can describe a distribution by its
center, shape and spread
• We will discuss distributions in much
greater detail later in the course mostly in
Units 2, 4, and 5
 Data Anaylsis

• Examine a variable by itself first

• Study relationships among variables
• Utilize graphs and number summaries to
help organize data to make sense
 Types of Graphs
(to be studied in Unit 1)
Qualitative: Quantitative:
Bar Graph Dotplot
Side-by-side Bar Graph Stemplot
Pie Chart Boxplot
Histogram
Ogive
Scatterplot
 Probability

• Probability is usually unpredictable in the

short run but is regular and very
predictable in the long run
• We will study probability and long run
behavior in Unit 3 of the course
Statistical Inference (Units 4&5)

• How to draw conclusions from data

• Utilized in medical studies, political polling
• Allows you to make predictions and
conclusions
• We must understand that we cannot be
certain about our conclusions in statistics
so there is always room for error