Basic Terms in Statistics

1. What is Statistics?
➢ It is a science of conducting studies to collect, organize,
summarize, analyze, and draw conclusions from data.

❑ Variables are characteristics or attributes (e.g. gender,

height, grades, test scores) that can assume different
values.
❑ Data are collections of observations. That is, these are
collections of values that the variables can assume.
2. Population vs. Sample
Population
It is a collection of all individuals to be studied. The collection is
complete in the sense that it includes all of the individuals to be
studied.

Sample
It is a group of subjects selected from population.
Exercise
Determine the variable, population and sample in the situation
below.

A group of students conducted a study about the level of satisfaction

of the residents of Brgy. Maligaya with the administration of their
Brgy. Captain. 80% of those who are interviewed are “Satisfied”; 15%
are “Not Satisfied”; and 5% are “Undecided”. This study was made
possible by interviewing 250 residents of the said barangay.
Solution
Population: All residents of Brgy. Maligaya. The study does not
concern residents outside the said barangay.

Sample: 250 selected residents of the Brgy. Maligaya. Their responses

are intended to represent all the residents of the said barangay.

Variable: Level of Satisfaction with the administration of Brgy.

Captain. For example, the responses include “Satisfied”, “Not
Satisfied”, and “Undecided”.
Exercise
Determine the variable, population and sample in the situation
below.

Suppose the school canteen of QAZ Academy would like to know the
preferred afternoon snacks of the high school students. To achieve
this, the canteen’s staff interviewed 70 students of the said school.
Some of the students’ responses include “cheese stick”, “banana cue”
and “pan cake”.
Solution
Population: All residents of Brgy. Maligaya. The study does not
concern residents outside the said barangay.

Sample: 250 selected residents of the Brgy. Maligaya. Their responses

are intended to represent all the residents of the said barangay.

Variable: Level of Satisfaction with the administration of Brgy.

Captain. For example, the responses include “Satisfied”, “Not
Satisfied”, and “Undecided”.
3. Divisions of Statistics
Descriptive Statistics
It consists of the collection, organization, summarization, and
presentation of data.

Inferential Statistics
It consists of generalizing from samples to populations, performing
estimations and hypothesis tests, determining relationships
between variables, and making predictions.
Examples of Descriptive Statistics
1. A weather report shows the temperature, humidity and
precipitation for a day based on multiple measurements from
different locations.
2. A businessman, through inventories, identifies the sales and
quantity of each items sold by his store over a period of time.
3. DepEd identified the percentage distribution of the enrollees
across grade levels for the school year based on submitted
reports of each school in the country.
Examples of Inferential Statistics
1. A meteorologist, based on weather reports in the past few days,
determines the most probable weather condition for the next
day.
2. A businessman, through inventories and costumer feedbacks,
identifies the expected items that would be trending for the next
month.
3. DepEd calculated the expected number of enrollees for each
grade level for the next school year based on the submitted
reports of each school in the country.
Exercise: Descriptive or Inferential?
1. A group of researchers estimate the average height of adults in a city
based on the data obtained from a sample of 200 adults chosen from
the same city.
2. A teacher computes the average score of the students in a section
who took a Math Exam.
3. The Student Government identified the number of members of each
registered organization in the school.
4. By interviewing 1000 randomly selected Filipinos, the researchers
determine the approval rating of the President.
Solution
1. Inferential
We used a mere sample of 200 adults to predict the average height of
adults in the city.

2. Descriptive
The teacher merely summarizes the scores of the students in an
exam. No prediction or generalization was involved.
… continued.
3. Descriptive
The Student Government merely made a report about each
organization in the school. Such report does not involve generalization
or prediction.

4. Inferential
The researcher intended to use the view of the 1000 Filipinos to
represent the entire nation. Hence, it involves generalization.
4. Qualitative vs. Quantitative Variables
Qualitative Variables
They consist of names or labels that do NOT represent counts or
measurements.

Quantitative Variables
They consist of observations representing counts or measurements.
Moreover, they can also be ordered or ranked.
Examples
Qualitative Variables
➢ Gender
➢ Civil Status
➢ Students’ favorite subject
Quantitative Variables
➢ Height of the students
➢ Daily allowance
➢ Test scores
Practice
Determine whether the following variables are quantitative or
qualitative.
1. Weight of a person
2. ID number of a student
3. Daily income
4. Number of school days
5. Political Party
6. Birth Month
… continued.
7. Number of letters in a document
8. House number
9. Most frequent letters in a document
10. Number of houses in a compound
11. Plate number
12. Religion
13. Birth year
5. Levels of Measurement
There are four levels of measurement namely:
❑ Nominal
❑ Ordinal
❑ Interval
❑ Ratio
Levels of Measurement (continued)
➢ Nominal
This classifies data into mutual exclusive categories in which no order or
ranking can be imposed on the data.

Examples:
▪ Civil status
▪ Student ID number
▪ Elective subject taken by grade 9 students
Levels of Measurement (continued)
➢ Ordinal
This classifies the data into categories that can be ranked. However,
precise differences between the ranks do NOT exist.

Examples:
▪ Honors received by a high school student (with honor, high honor,
highest honor)
▪ Level of agreement (e.g. Strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly
disagree)
▪ Class ranking
Levels of Measurement (continued)
➢ Interval
At this level, the data can be ranked and there is a precise difference
between units of measure. However, there is no meaningful zero.

➢ Ratio
This level has all the properties of interval level with addition
properties of having a meaningful zero and having a true ratio.
Levels of Measurement (continued)
Examples of Variable in Interval Level
▪ Temperature (℃ or ℉)
▪ Quarterly grade
Examples of Variable in Ratio Level
▪ Number of students in a room
▪ Age
▪ Height
Levels of Measurement (continued)
In summary,
Does it have meaningful … MAGNITUDE DIFFERENCE RATIO
(i.e. we can compare data (i.e. can we perform (i.e. can we perform
to determine which one is meaningful addition and meaningful division?)
higher) subtraction?)

NOMINAL
𝐱 𝐱 𝐱
ORDINAL
✓ 𝐱 𝐱
INTERVAL
✓ ✓ 𝐱
RATIO
✓ ✓ ✓
Practice
Determine the level of measurement of the following variables.
1. T – Shirt sizes (e.g. XL)
2. Latin Honors (e.g. Cum Laude)
3. Letter grades (A+, A-, B, C, etc.)
4. Number of pages of textbooks in public schools
5. Basketball uniform number
6. Eye color
7. Teacher’s salary
8. Salary grade