STATISTICS

 Plays a vital role in every field of human activity

 Statistics is the mathematical science involving the collection, analysis and interpretation of data.
A number of specialties have evolved to apply statistical and methods to various disciplines.

Timmy is a pizza shop manager and he has two locations picked for a possible new
location. He decides to conduct a mini-study to decide based on a variety of factors. Location A is
smaller, and he notices that there is a high school two blocks away, some business offices close
by, and a laundromat next door. Location B is larger and next to a supermarket with some
business offices scattered around the area, amidst several vacant lots. If you were Timmy, which
would you choose?

You are a statistician in many ways. Statistics is the method of conducting a study about
a particular topic by collecting, organizing, interpreting, and finally presenting data. Being a
statistician at an elementary level may simply mean noticing patterns in daily circumstances and
drawing conclusions about those patterns. On a grander scale, statisticians may spend months or
years conducting a study before they can produce meaningful analysis of information. Statistics is
its own community, with rules, procedures, and policies all built on simple mathematical
principles.

1. BUSINESS
 A successful businessman must be very quick and accurate in decision making. He knows
what his customers want; he should therefore know what to produce and sell and in what
quantities
 Statistics helps businessmen to plan production according to the taste of the customers,
and the quality of the products can also be checked more efficiently by using statistical
methods. Thus, it can be seen that all business activities are based on statistical
information. Businessmen can make correct decisions about the location of business,
marketing of the products, financial resources, etc.
 Large companies. Every large company employs its own statistical research divisions or
firms to research issues related to products, employees, customer service, etc. Business
success relies on knowing what is working and what isn't.
 Business analytics is a rapidly developing business process that applies statistical
methods to data sets (often very large) to develop new insights and understanding of
business performance & opportunities.
 Examples: 1) Condoms are effective 94% of the time; and 2) 4 out of 5 dentists
recommend Dentine. These are examples of marketing phrases that businesses will use to
make their product sell. These involve the use of statistics.

2. ECONOMICS
 Economics largely depends upon statistics. National income accounts are multipurpose
indicators for economists and administrators, and statistical methods are used to prepare
these accounts. In economics research, statistical methods are used to collect and analyse
the data and test hypotheses. The relationship between supply and demand is studied by
statistical methods; imports and exports, inflation rates, and per capita income are
problems which require a good knowledge of statistics.
  Econometrics is a branch of economics that applies statistical methods to the empirical
study of economic theories and relationships.
 A good example of statistics and economics in the real world would be the Census
Bureau and the information they collect and use to decide many other political items.

3. MATHEMATICS
 It should seem obvious that statistics plays a key role in mathematics considering it’s a
branch of applied mathematics. However, statistics is in more than just its own separate
branch of math. You can find statistical techniques in integration, differentiation, and
algebra and you can find those in statistics as well.
 Much of math is based on probability and theories, and statistical methods help make
those mathematical theories that much more accurate. Using averages, dispersions, and
estimation allows you to come up with conclusions that are closer to the real answer than
just taking a wild guess.
 Examples: 1) There is an 80% chance that in a room full of 30 people that at least two
people will share the same birthday; 2) Find the range of the graph; and 3) Find the mean,
median, and mode.

4. BANKING
 Banks use statistics for a great number of the services they offer. A bank works on the
idea that someone will deposit their money and not withdraw all of it later on. They earn
their profit by lending money to others with interest, and the money they use is the
money other people deposit.
 Bankers use statistical approaches to estimate the number of people who will be making
deposits compared to the number of people requesting loans.
 A great example of statistics used in banking is the FDIC’s own quarterly publication
called Statistics on Banking.

5. ACCOUNTING
 Accounting is impossible without exactness. But for decision making purposes, so much
precision is not essential; the decision may be made on the basis of approximation,
known as statistics. The correction of the values of current assets is made on the basis of
the purchasing power of money or its current value.
 In auditing, sampling techniques are commonly used. An auditor determines the sample
size to be audited on the basis of error.
 Accounting involves mostly basic arithmetic, but when it comes to creating accounting
reports, statistics plays a key role. When balancing and checking accounts, exactness is
very important, but when using those reports to decide how well the company is doing
and the trends within the business. You can also use statistics in accounting to create
projections for the next fiscal year.

6. GOVERNMENT
 Statistics is essential to a country. Different governmental policies are based on statistics.
Statistical data are now widely used in making all administrative decisions. Suppose if
 the government wants to revise the pay scales of employees in view of an increase in the
cost of living, and statistical methods will be used to determine the rise in the cost of
living.
 A nation’s government runs on statistics. They use statistical data to make their decisions
regarding any number of things.
 Government Agencies. The government uses statistics to make decisions about
populations, health, education, etc. It may conduct research on education to check the
progress of high schools students using a specific curriculum or collect characteristic
information about the population using a census.
 Examples: Most federal and provincial budgets are designed upon statistical data because
it’s the most accurate data available when estimating expected expenditures and revenue.
So statistics are the eyes of the administration of the state. Another great example of
statistics in the government is figuring out whether or not to raise the minimum wage due
to a rise in the cost of living. Statistical data gives the government the best idea regarding
whether or not the cost of living will continue to rise.

7. NATURAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

 Statistics plays a vital role in almost all the natural and social sciences. Statistical
methods are commonly used for analysing experiments results, and testing their
significance in biology, physics, chemistry, mathematics, meteorology, research,
chambers of commerce, sociology, business, public administration, communications and
information technology, etc. For many of these categories, the use of statistics in that
field involves collecting data, analysing it, coming up with a hypothesis, and testing that
hypothesis.
 In biology, the use of statistics within that field is known as biostatistics, biometry, or
biometrics. Biostatistics often involves the design of experiments in medicine, online
pharmacy, agriculture, and fishery. It also involves collecting, summarizing, and
analysing the data received from those experiments as well as the decided results.
Medical biostatistics is a separate branch that deals mainly with medicine and health.
 Physics uses probability theory and statistics dealing mainly with the estimation of large
populations. In fact, the phenomenological results of thermodynamics were developed
using the mechanics of statistics.
 There are further examples of statistics in these sciences fields including analytical
chemistry, which involves the presentation of problems in data analysis and
demonstrating steps to solve them. Meteorology uses statistics in stochastic-dynamic
prediction, weather forecasting, probability forecasting, and a number of other fields.
 Sociology uses statistics to describe, explain, and predict from data received. Like many
of the sciences, communication uses statistical methods to communicate data received.
Information technology also uses statistics to predict particular outcomes.
 Science and Medicine. The medical field would be far less effective without research to
see which medicines or interventions work best and how the human bodies react to
treatment. Medical professionals also perform studies by race, age, or nationality to see
the effect of these characteristics on health.
 Psychology. Although this is attached to both the science and medical field, success in
psychology would be impossible without the systematic study of human behaviour, often
analysing results statistically.
8. ASTRONOMY
 Astronomy is one of the oldest branches of statistical study; it deals with the
measurement of distance, and sizes, masses and densities of heavenly bodies by means of
observations. During these measurements errors are unavoidable, so the most probable
measurements are found by using statistical methods.
 It is impossible to take out a ruler and measure the distance of the Earth from the sun.
Unless, of course, you somehow manage to invent a suit that can survive the temperatures
of the sun and design a ruler long enough to measure such a distance. However, it would
likely take you a very long time to measure such a distance anyway.
 Instead, astronomers use estimates and mathematical theories to devise their best guess to
just how far items in the universe are away from each other. This is why when you read a
news report that a star will likely be going supernova “any day now,” you have to
understand that “any day now” could mean tomorrow, a year from now, or even ten
thousand years from now.
 Astrostatistics is the discipline that applies statistical analysis to the understanding of
astronomical data.
 Example: This distance of the moon from the earth is measured. Since history,
astronomers have been using statistical methods like method of least squares to find the
movements of stars.