Introduction to Statistics

What is statistics?
• Definition of Statistics
• Statistics is the study of the collection, analysis, interpretation, presentation, and
organization of data. In other words, it is a mathematical discipline to collect,
summarize data. Also, we can say that statistics is a branch of applied
mathematics. However, there are two important and basic ideas involved in
statistics; they are uncertainty and variation. The uncertainty and variation in
different fields can be determined only through statistical analysis. These
uncertainties are basically determined by the probability that plays an important
role in statistics.
• Statistics is a study of data: describing properties of data (descriptive
statistics) and drawing conclusions about a population based on
information in a sample (inferential statistics). The distinction between a
population together with its parameters and a sample together with its
statistics is a fundamental concept in inferential statistics. Information in
a sample is used to make inferences about the population from which
the sample was drawn.
What is Biostatistics
• Biostatistics is the application of statistical techniques to scientific
research in health-related fields, including medicine, biology, and
public health, and the development of new tools to study these areas.
Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the field of biostatistics
has become an indispensable tool in improving health and reducing
illness.
Descriptive Statistics
• Descriptive statistics summarizes or describes the characteristics of a data
set.
• Descriptive statistics consists of three basic categories of measures:
measures of central tendency, measures of variability (or spread), and
frequency distribution.
• Measures of central tendency describe the center of the data set (mean,
median, mode).
• Measures of variability describe the dispersion of the data set (variance,
standard deviation).
• Measures of frequency distribution describe the occurrence of data within
the data set
Inferential Statistics.

• Inferential statistics are often used to compare the differences between

the treatment groups. Inferential statistics use measurements from the
sample of subjects in the experiment to compare the treatment groups
and make generalizations about the larger population of subjects.
• There are many types of inferential statistics and each is appropriate
for a specific research design and sample characteristics.
What Is Population?

• A population is the complete set group of individuals, whether that

group comprises a nation or a group of people with a common
characteristic.
• In Statistics, a population is the pool of individuals from which a
statistical sample is drawn for a study. Thus, any selection of
individuals grouped by a common feature can be said to be a
population. A sample may also refer to a statistically significant
portion of a population, not an entire population.
What Is a Sample?

• A sample refers to a smaller, manageable version of a larger

group. It is a subset containing the characteristics of a larger
population. Samples are used in statistical testing when
population sizes are too large for the test to include all possible
members or observations.
Data.
• Data are measurements or observations that are collected as a
source of information. There are a variety of different types of
data, and different ways to represent data.
• Primary data refers to the first hand data gathered by the
researcher himself. Secondary data means data collected by
someone else earlier. Surveys, observations, experiments,
questionnaire, personal interview, etc.
Types of data
Qualitative or Categorical Data

•
Qualitative data, also known as the categorical data, describes the data that
fits into the categories. Qualitative data are not numerical. The categorical
information involves categorical variables that describe the features such as a
person’s gender, home town etc. Categorical measures are defined in terms
of natural language specifications, but not in terms of numbers.
Sometimes categorical data can hold numerical values (quantitative value),
but those values do not have a mathematical sense. Examples of the
categorical data are birthdate, favourite sport, school postcode. Here, the
birthdate and school postcode hold the quantitative value, but it does not give
numerical meaning.
Nominal Data

• Nominal data is one of the types of qualitative information which

helps to label the variables without providing the numerical value.
Nominal data is also called the nominal scale. It cannot be ordered and
measured. But sometimes, the data can be qualitative and quantitative.
Examples of nominal data are letters, symbols, words, gender etc.
Ordinal Data

• Ordinal data/variable is a type of data that follows a natural order. The

ordinal data is commonly represented using a bar chart. These data are
investigated and interpreted through many visualization tools. The
information may be expressed using tables in which each row in the
table shows the distinct category.
Quantitative or Numerical Data

• Quantitative data is also known as numerical data which represents the

numerical value (i.e., how much, how often, how many). Numerical
data gives information about the quantities of a specific thing. Some
examples of numerical data are height, length, size, weight, and so on.
The quantitative data can be classified into two different types based
on the data sets. The two different classifications of numerical data are
discrete data and continuous data.
• Discrete Data
• Discrete data can take only discrete values. Discrete information
contains only a finite number of possible values. Those values cannot
be subdivided meaningfully. Here, things can be counted in whole
numbers.
• Example: Number of students in the class
• Continuous Data
• Continuous data is data that can be calculated. It has an infinite number
of probable values that can be selected within a given specific range.
• Example: Temperature range
Variable
• A variable is a characteristic that can be measured and that can
assume different values. Height, age, income, province or
country of birth, grades obtained at school and type of housing
are all examples of variables. Variables may be classified into
two main categories: categorical and numeric.
Observation
• An observation is a fact or figure we collect about a given
variable. It can be expressed as a number or as a quality. An
example of a number is the observation "25" for the age of a
mother at the birth of her first child.