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INTRODUCTION TO STATISTICS

A. Scope of Statistics

Statistics – (Singular) It is a body of knowledge that deals with the collection, organization and presentation,
analysis and interpretation of data.
- It is a field of study concerned with the mathematical characterization of a group of data.

a. collection – gathering of information of data.

b. organization and presentation – involves summarizing data or information in textual, graphical or tabular
forms.
c. Analysis – describing data using statistical methods and procedures
d. Interpretation – making conclusions based on the analyzed data

B. Importance of Statistics
1. used to analyze financial status of business enterprises
2. used to make forecast of production requirements
3. used to analyze and interpret scores for better understanding of the individual or group
4. used in analyzing and interpreting data in research
5. used to draw inferences and formulate valid conclusions from a body of experimental and observational data.
6. used for decision making, planning and conduct of any activity
7. allows one to compare data in the most definite and exact way
8. provides with symbols to accurately and completely describe the characteristics of a certain phenomenon
9. allows one to express research results meaningfully and present them in a form easily read and understood.
10. allows one to predict an outcome with the same degree of accuracy under conditions we have managed to
control.

C. Some Applications of Statistics

1. survey on the popularity of presidential bets
2. death toll on dengue fever cases
3. average of students’ grades
4. most requested songs
5. effectiveness of beauty soaps/slimming pills

D. Historical Development of Statistics

 was developed as an offshoot of organizing government records like birth rate, death rate, migration rates and
census

Ancient - most famous was the Roman census recorded in the bible when Augustus Ceasar declared a decree for
all inhabitants of the earth to be registered, each to his own city – When Joseph and Mary went to the
city of Nazareth into David’s City called Bethlehem.

Middle Ages
o England started to record taxes, military services and custom duties.
o William the Conqueror ordered the surveying of lands for taxation.
o Henry VIII started the registration of deaths.
o Capt. John Graunt published the first ever book on descriptive statistics in 16th century

Modern Times
o This is characterized by the drawing of inferences about a large collection of persons by looking at its
samples.
o The theory of probability emerged during the 17th century as these theories were used in gambling and other
games of chance.
o Abraham de Moivre discovered the equation of the normal curve
o Karl Pearson, Marquiz de Laplace, Karl Friedrich Gauss made extensive studies about correlation
o Sir Ronald Fisher discovered a unified theory for drawing conclusions from a set of data (F test)

E. Types of Statistical Investigations

1. Descriptive - a statistical procedure concerned with describing the characteristics and properties of a group of
persons, places or things.
- It involves gathering, organizing, presenting and describing data..
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- Its objective is to summarize important features of a set of data

- also includes the study of relationships between and among variables.

2. Inferential – a statistical procedure that is used to draw inferences or information about the properties or
characteristics by a large group of people, places, or things on the basis of the information obtained
from a small portion of a large group.
- Involves analysis of data so that meaningful interpretation or conclusion about a large group of people
could be attained.

F. Definition of Terms:

1. Population – refers to a large collection of objects, persons, places or things.

2. Sample – a small portion or part of a population which is a representative of a population.
3. Parameter – any numerical or nominal characteristic of a population. It is a value or a measurement obtained from
a population. It is referred as true or actual value.
4. Statistic –it is an estimate of a parameter. It is any value or measurement obtained from a sample.
(Statistics – plural ). The collection of descriptive measures from samples
5. Data – facts or sets of information or observation under study.
6. Variable – a characteristic or property of a population or sample which makes the members different from each
other.
a. Dependent - a variable which is affected or influenced by another variable.
b. Independent - one which affects or influences the dependent variable.

G. Types of Data

1. According to Source
a. Primary - they arrive from original investigations like observations, interviews, experiments, etc.
b. Secondary - they arise from secondary sources like books, records, reports, etc.

2. According to Nature of Collection

a. Qualitative - data which can assume values that manifest the concept of attributes. These are sometimes called
categorical (observations that can be grouped according to a category or class.
b. Quantitative – these are data which are numerical in nature and are the results of either counting or
measurements
1. Discrete - data obtained by counting
2. Continuous – can assume infinite values within a specified interval. The values are obtained through
measuring.

c. Ranked Data - Observations that show relative position based on some characteristics without increasingly
yielding a numerical value for that characteristics.

3. According to Scale of Measurement

a. Nominal - variables which can be classified into two or more categories.

1. Real nominal – those that are classified based on a naturally occurring attribute.
Ex. Sex; nationality, ethnic origin

2. Artificial nominal – those that are classified based on man-made attributes following certain rules.
Ex. Passed-Failed; extrovert/introvert; mild/heavy smoker

b. Ordinal – those that are grouped according to the rank or order of the categories

c. Interval – data in which not only ordering or ranking of the observations are possible but also arithmetic
differences between them make sense.
- Here addition and subtraction is meaningful
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- The zero point becomes arbitrary and does not reflect an absence of the attribute.
- The amount of difference could be specified

d. Ratio - refers to a variable where equality of ratio or proportion has meaning.

- zero point is not arbitrary and it indicates the total absence of the property being measured.
- Concepts of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division make sense
- there is always the presence of units
- Similar to interval data