Introduction to Statistics

Course Instructor: Dr. Eihab Abdel Rahim Dawi Ahmed

 Chapter 1

What is Statistics?
Learning Objectives

 LO1-1:

Explain why knowledge of statistics is important

 LO1-2:
Define statistics and provide an example of how statistics is applied

 LO1-3:

Differentiate between descriptive and inferential statistics

 LO1-4:

Classify variables as qualitative or quantitative, and discrete or continuous

 LO1-5:

Distinguish between nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio levels of measurement

 LO1-6:

List the values associated with the practice of statistics

Why Study Statistics

1. Data are collected everywhere and require statistical knowledge to make the
information useful.

2. Statistical techniques are used to make professional and personal decisions.

3. A knowledge of statistics is needed to understand the world and be conversant in your

career.

4. In summary, statistics will help you make more effective personal and professional
decisions.

What is meant by Statistics?

Statistics is more than presenting numerical facts.

What is statistics?

STATISTICS is the science of collecting, organizing, presenting, analyzing, and

interpreting data to assist in making decisions that are more effective.

Example (1):
We can provide here a simple example to know why we study statistics:

Corona infection rate this year among specific country people this year is 25%. By
applying statistics, we could compare this year’s infection rate to past observations of
infection rate. Is it higher, lower, or about the same? Is there a trend of increasing or
decreasing infection rate?

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Data and Information:

Definition of the Data:

The data is the record of the facts, the quantities, the characters, or symbols stored as raw.

Example (2):

Raw data as: Ages, Gender, Governorates, student grades, ….etc.

Definition of the information:

Information is the knowledge generated after the data has been processed.

Without a processing process, the data remains of no value

Example (3):

1. Percentage of the students who are between 20 to 25 years in AOU-Kuwait

2. Percentage of the male students in AOU-Kuwait, and Percentage of the female students
in AOU-Kuwait.
3. Percentage of the students in AOU-Kuwait who scored “A” in BUS 102 course.

DATA PROCESSING INFORMATION

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Definition of the Variable:

A variable is any characteristics, number, or quantity that can be measured or counted. A

variable may also be called a data item.

In statistics, a variable has two defining characteristics:

 A variable is an attribute that describes a person, place, thing, or idea.

 The value of the variable can "vary" from one entity to another.

Example (4):

A person's hair color is a potential variable, which could have the value of "black" for one
person and "blond" for another.

A symbol for a number we don't know yet. It is usually a letter like x or y.

Example (5):
In: x + 2 = 6, x is the variable.

 If it is not a variable it is called a Constant.

Example (6):
Age, sex, business income and expenses, country of birth, capital expenditure, class grades,
and eye color and vehicle type are examples of variables. It is called a variable because the
value may vary between data units in a population, and may change in value over time.
Example (7):
'Income' is a variable that can vary between data units in a population (i.e. the people or
businesses being studied may not have the same incomes) and can also vary over time for
each data unit (i.e. income can go up or down).

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Population and Sample:
POPULATION:

Population is the entire set of individuals or objects of interest, or the measurements obtained
from all individuals or objects of interest.

Example (8):
1. All the students who registered for BUS102 Course in spring semester is a population.
2. All the scores of students in BUS102 Course in spring semester is a population.
3. All the grades of students in BUS102 Course in spring semester is a population.

SAMPLE:
Sample is a portion or part of the population of interest.

Example (9):

1. Sample of students who registered for BUS102 Course in spring semester:

Ahmed, Ali, Hasan, Omar, Mohammed, Huda, Hessa, Suzan, Jenan
2. Sample of the scores of students in BUS102 Course in spring semester:

85, 78, 70, 90, 75, 77, 82

3. Sample of the grades of students in BUS102 Course in spring semester:

A, B+, C+, C, A, C+, B+, B, B

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Types of Statistics

There are two types of statistics: Descriptive statistics and Inferential statistics.

Descriptive statistics:

Descriptive statistics is the Methods of organizing, summarizing, and presenting data in

an informative way.

It can be used to organize data into a meaningful form. You can summarize data and
provide information that is easy to understand.

Example (10):

In Kuwait, the number of new cases of infected people is 1,341 on March 2, 2021. The
average of infected people during the past 7 days is 1,053. This result means: on average
the new cases of infected people with COVID 19 in Kuwait is 1,053 a day.

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INFERENTIAL STATISTICS

The methods used to estimate a property of a population on the basis of a sample.

Inferential statistics can be used to estimate properties of a population. You can make
decisions based on a limited set of data.

Example (11):

A study of teenage suicide included a sample of 96 boys and 123 girls between ages of 12
and 16 years selected scientifically from admissions records to a private psychiatric
hospital consisted of 12250 boys and 7500 girls. Suicide attempts were reported by 18 of
the boys (18.8%) and 60 of the girls (48.8%).

Types of variables:

There are different ways variables can be described according to the ways they can be
studied, measured, and presented.

The data collected for a numeric variable are quantitative data.

Definition of Numeric Variables:

Have values that describe a measurable quantity as a number, like 'how many' or
'how much'. Therefore, numeric variables are quantitative variables.

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Numeric variables may be further described as either continuous or discrete:

(a) A continuous variable:

A continuous variable is a numeric variable. Observations can take any value

between a certain set of real numbers. The value given to an observation for a
continuous variable can include values as small as the instrument of
measurement allows.

Example (12):

Examples of continuous variables include height, time, age, and temperature.

(b) A discrete variable:

A discrete variable is a numeric variable. Observations can take a value based on

a count from a set of distinct whole values. A discrete variable cannot take the
value of a fraction between one value and the next closest value.

Example (13):

Examples of discrete variables include the number of registered cars, number of business
locations, and number of children in a family, all of which measured as whole units (i.e. 1,
2, 3 cars).

Example (14):

Suppose the fire department mandates that all fire fighters must weigh between 150 and
250 pounds. The weight of a fire fighter would be an example of a continuous variable;
since a fire fighter's weight could take on any value between 150 and 250 pounds.
Example (15):
Suppose we flip a coin and count the number of heads. The number of heads could be any
integer value between 0 and plus infinity. However, it could not be any number between 0
and plus infinity. We could not, for example, get 2.3 heads. Therefore, the number of heads
must be a discrete variable.
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 (II) Categorical variables:

Have values that describe a 'quality' or 'characteristic' of a data unit, like 'what type' or
'which category'. Categorical variables fall into mutually exclusive (in one category or
in another) and exhaustive (include all possible options) categories. Therefore,
categorical variables are qualitative variables and tend to be represented by a non-
numeric value.

Example (16):

Examples of Categorical variables include academic grades (i.e. A, B, C), clothing size (i.e.
small, medium, large, extra-large) and attitudes (i.e. strongly agree, agree, disagree,
strongly disagree), Gender, business type, eye color, religion and brand.

The data collected for a categorical variable are qualitative data.

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Levels of Measurement

There are four levels of measurement: Nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio.

 The level of measurement determines the type of statistical analysis that can be
performed.
 Nominal is the lowest level of measurement.

NOMINAL LEVEL OF MEASUREMENT: Data recorded at the nominal level of

measurement is represented as labels or names. They have no order. They can only be
classified and counted.

Example (17):

Classifying M&M candies by color, identifying students at a football game by gender.

 The next level of measurement is the ordinal level.

 The rankings are known but not the magnitude of differences between groups.

ORDINAL LEVEL OF MEASUREMENT: Data recorded at the ordinal level of

measurement is based on a relative ranking or rating of items based on a defined
attribute or qualitative variable. Variables based on this level of measurement are only
ranked and counted.

Example (18):

The list of top ten states for best business climate, student ratings of professors.

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  The next level of measurement is the interval level.
 This data has all the characteristics of ordinal level data plus the differences between the
values are meaningful.
 There is no natural 0 point.

INTERVAL LEVEL OF MEASUREMENT: For data recorded at the interval level of

measurement, the interval or the distance between values is meaningful. The interval
level of measurement is based on a scale with a known unit of measurement .

Example (19):

The Fahrenheit temperature scale, dress sizes

 The highest level of measurement is the ratio level.

 The data has all the characteristics of the interval scale and ratios between numbers are
meaningful.
 The 0 point represents the absence of the characteristic.

RATIO LEVEL OF MEASUREMENT: Data recorded at the ratio level of measurement

are based on a scale with a known unit of measurement and a meaningful
interpretation of zero on the scale.

Example (20):

Examples: wages, changes in stock prices, and weight

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 Summary of Measurements’ Levels

Ethics and Statistics

 Practice statistics with integrity and honesty when collecting, organizing, summarizing,
analyzing, and interpreting numerical information

 Maintain an independent and principled point of view when analyzing and reporting
finding and results

 Question reports that are based on data that:

 do not fairly represent the population
 does not include all relevant statistics
 introduces bias in an attempt to mislead or misrepresent


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