What is Statistics?

The practice or science of collecting and analyzing numerical data in large quantities, especially
for the purpose of inferring proportions in a whole from those in a representative sample.
Statistics is the science concerned with developing and studying methods for collecting,
analyzing, interpreting and presenting empirical data. Statistics is a highly interdisciplinary field;
research in statistics finds applicability in virtually all scientific fields and research questions in
the various scientific fields motivate the development of new statistical methods and theory. In
developing methods and studying the theory that underlies the methods statisticians draw on a
variety of mathematical and computational tools.

What are the division of statistics? and differentiate it

Division 1-Descriptive Statistics:

It mainly summarizes the population data by describing what was observed or gathered in the sample
numerically or graphically.

Descriptive statistics are generally presented with more formal analyses of data.

Effect size is a descriptive statistic technique that conveys the estimated magnitude and direction of the
difference between groups

For example, we can report the average reading test score for the students in each classroom in a
college, to give a descriptive sense of the typical scores and their variations.

Division 2-Inferential Statistics or Statistical Inference:

Inferential Statistics uses patterns in which the sample data draw inferences about the population
represented and also accounting for randomness. This describe systems of procedures that can be used
to draw conclusions from resulting datasets arising from systems affected by random variation

In inferential statics the system should produce the reasonable answers applied to well-defined
situations.

Statistical Inference is most often used in cases like

Statistical model of the random process that is to generate the data

A particular realization of the random process
What are the classification of numerical data?
Numerical data. These data have meaning as a measurement, such as a persons height, weight, IQ,
or blood pressure; or theyre a count, such as the number of stock shares a person owns, how many
teeth a dog has, or how many pages you can read of your favorite book before you fall asleep.
(Statisticians also call numerical data quantitative data.)
Numerical data can be further broken into two types: discrete and continuous.

Discrete data represent items that can be counted; they take on possible values that can be
listed out. The list of possible values may be fixed (also called finite); or it may go from 0, 1, 2, on
to infinity (making it countably infinite). For example, the number of heads in 100 coin flips
takes on values from 0 through 100 (finite case), but the number of flips needed to get 100
heads takes on values from 100 (the fastest scenario) on up to infinity (if you never get to that
100th heads). Its possible values are listed as 100, 101, 102, 103, . . . (representing the countably
infinite case).

Continuous data represent measurements; their possible values cannot be counted and can only
be described using intervals on the real number line. For example, the exact amount of gas
purchased at the pump for cars with 20-gallon tanks would be continuous data from 0 gallons to
20 gallons, represented by the interval [0, 20], inclusive. You might pump 8.40 gallons, or 8.41,
or 8.414863 gallons, or any possible number from 0 to 20. In this way, continuous data can be
thought of as being uncountably infinite. For ease of recordkeeping, statisticians usually pick
some point in the number to round off. Another example would be that the lifetime of a C
battery can be anywhere from 0 hours to an infinite number of hours (if it lasts forever),
technically, with all possible values in between. Granted, you dont expect a battery to last more
than a few hundred hours, but no one can put a cap on how long it can go (remember the
Energizer Bunny?).

What are the level or scale of measurements of numerical data?

Measurement Scales and Data Types

It is important, in statistical analysis, to know about the different scales of measurement, these are:

INTERVAL
Scale with a fixed and defined interval e.g. temperature or time.

ORDINAL
Scale for ordering observations from low to high with any ties attributed to lack of measurement
sensitivity e.g. score from a questionnaire.

NOMINAL with order

Scale for grouping into categories with order e.g. mild, moderate or severe. This can be difficult
to separate from ordinal.
 NOMINAL without order
Scale for grouping into unique categories e.g. eye colour.

DICHOTOMOUS
As for nominal but two categories only e.g. male/female.

In addition to the classification of measurement scales, other related terms are used to describe types of
data:

CATEGORICAL vs. NUMERICAL (quantitative vs. qualitative)

Data that represent categories, such as dichotomous (two categories) and nominal (more than
two categories) observations, are collectively called categorical (qualitative). Data that are
counted or measured using a numerically defined method are called numerical (quantitative).

DISCRETE vs. ORDERED CATEGORICAL

Discrete data arise from observations that can only take certain numerical values, usually counts
such as number of children or number of patients attending a clinic in a year. Ordered
categorical data are sometimes treated as discrete data, this is wrong. For example, using the
Registrar General's classification of social class, it would be wrong to say that class I is five times
the socio-economic status as class V, as there is not a strict numerical relationship between
these categories. It follows, therefore, that average social class is a meaningless statistic. Thus,
ordered categorical data should not be treated as discrete data for statistical analysis. Discrete
data may be treated as ordered categorical data in statistical analysis, but some information is
lost in doing so.

CONTINUOUS
Continuous data are numerical data that can theoretically be measured in infinitely small units.
For example, blood pressure is usually measured to the nearest 2mm Hg, but could be measured
with much greater resolution of difference. The interval measurement scale is intended for
continuous data. Sometimes continuous data are given discrete values at certain thresholds, for
example age a last birthday is a discrete value but age itself is a continuous quantity; in these
situations it is reasonable to treat discrete values as continuous. Remember that information is
lost when continuous data are recorded only in ranges (ordered categories), and the statistical
analysis of continuous data is more powerful than that of categorical data.

PERCENTAGES and RATIOS

Percentages or ratios summarise two pieces of information, namely their constituent numerator
and denominator values. Simple ratios (0 to 1, i.e. the denominator is the maximum possible
value that the numerator can take) can be treated as continuous data. More difficult to analyse
data arise when the ratio represents a change, and the value can be negative. Ratios of
observations compared with reference values, e.g. height relative to the mean of a reference
population for a given sex and age, are difficult to handle as values may fall either side of 1
(100%).