Introduction to Statistics

Francis Kazoba BSc.RTT

 Introduction
• The word statistics comes from an Italian word statista.
• Statistics is the science of collection, presentation,
analysis and interpretation of numerical data.
• It is a method of dealing with both qualitative and
quantitative information ie. dealing with figures and
facts.
• Use information in the sample to draw a conclusion
about the population.
 Biostatistics

• Biostatistics is a branch of statistics applied to

biological or medical sciences.
• It is a method of dealing with statistics in the field of
health sciences such as biology, medicine, nursing and
public health.
 Data

• Data are individual pieces of factual information

recorded and it is used for the purpose of data
analysis.
• The two process of data analysis are interpretation and
presentation.
• Data classification and handling are important process
in statistics because they make the analysis process
easy.
 Types of statistical data

• Statistical data can be classified into two main categories

 Qualitative or categorical data
 Quantitative or numerical data

• Qualitative data can further be classified into Nominal

and ordinal data.
• Quantitative data can also be classified into discrete and
continuous data.
 Types of data

Qualitative data
• This type of data are also known as categorical data
and they describes the data that into categories ( they
are not numerical).
• The categorical information involves the categorical
variables such as person’ gender and home town.
 Types of data

Quantitative data
• Qualitative data represents numerical value ie.how
much, how often, how many.
• Numerical data gives information about the quantities
of a specific things.
• Examples of numerical data are height, length, size
and weight.
Types of data
 Types of statistics

• There are two types of statistics

 Descriptive statistics
 Inferential statistics
• Descriptive statistics is based on distribution of sample data,
measure of central tendency and measure of variability of
data.
• Central tendency measure mean, mode and median of data
• Variability measure variance, standard deviation and range of
data.
 Types of statistics

Inferential statistics
• uses a study sample characteristics to draw conclusion
about the characteristics of the population.
 Types of statistics

Descriptive statistics
The measure of central tendency
• In descriptive statistics the measure of central tendency
involves determination of the following
 Mean
 Median
 Mode
 range
 Mean

• Is the average value of the data.

• It is obtained by adding up all your data, then divide by
the number of data points
Example
Sample data: 98cm, 76cm, 82cm, 54cm and 90cm
How to calculate:
98+76+82+54+90 = 400cm
400cm/5 = 80cm
 Median

• The median is the middle data point obtained by

arranging data in ascending or descending order.
• To determine the median, sort the data from smallest to
largest and find the middle data point
Example:
98cm, 76cm, 82cm, 54cm and 90cm
Rearranged Data:
54cm, 76cm, 82cm, 90cm, 98cm
 Median

• If there is an even number of data, there will be two middle

points.
• To find the median, take the average of those two data.
Example:
4ml, 8ml, 12ml and 2ml
Rearranged Data:
2ml, 4ml, 8ml, 12ml
4 + 8 = 12ml
12/2 = 6ml
 Median

• If there is an even number of data, there will be two middle

points.
• To find the median, take the average of those two data.
Example:
4ml, 8ml, 12ml and 2ml
Rearranged Data:
2ml, 4ml, 8ml, 12ml
4 + 8 = 12ml
12/2 = 6ml
 Mode

• The mode is the most frequently occurring data point in

a data set.
• The frequency measures, shows how often something
in a data occurs.
• To find the mode, arrange the data from smallest to
largest, and then determine which amount occurs most
often.
 Mode

Example:
20g, 23g,30g,30g, 22g, 27g, 25g, 20g, 23g, 24g, 23g,
25g, 20g, 23g
Soln:
Rearranged Data:
20g 20g 20g,22g, 23g, 23g, 23g, 23g, 24g, 25g,
25g,27g,30g ,30g.
Mode is 23g
 Measure of variability

• The measure of variability or variation involves the

three statistical measures
 Range
 Variance
 Standard deviation
• This measures identify the ‘spread out’ of data.
 Range

• The range is the difference between the largest and

smallest data value.
• To calculate, determine the smallest data point and the
largest data point, then subtract the smallest from the
largest.
ie. Range= largest data-smallest data
 Range

Example:
20g, 23g,30g,30g, 22g, 27g, 25g, 20g, 23g, 24g, 23g,
25g, 20g, 23g.
Range=Largest value-Smallest value
Largest data=27g
Smallest data=20g
Range=27g-20g
Range=7g
 Variance

• In statistics variance measures the variability from the

average or mean value.
• It is calculated by taking the differences between each
number in the data set and the mean, then squaring
the differences to make them positive and finally
dividing the sum of squares by the number of values in
the data set.
Variance
Worked example
 Standard deviation

• Standard deviation is a square root of variance.

Standard deviation
Conquer that fear