What is the nature and scope of statistics?
Answers
Statistics, according to About, is the study of numerical information called data. Statisticians acquire, study and formulate conclusions based on data they collect using any of several different methods.
In the field of statistics, a small portion of a large group is used to formulate conclusions about the entire group. The smaller portion is the sample size, and the entire group is referred to as the population. An assumption about a population of millions of people may be derived from a sample size of a few thousand people.
Acquiring data is dependent on the method of collection. The collection of data can be random or clustered, depending on the nature of the survey. The methods used to collect the data are important to the statisticians making conclusions from the final tallies. Whether the questionnaire allows people to submit their own answers or researchers obtain the data themselves, the method factors into the final conclusion.
Organization of data is the visualization of all the varying answers through the use of charts and graphs. These visual aids help to organize the data in a clear manner.
The analysis of data is called descriptive statistics. The mean is the average of the data collected. The range shows how spread out the data is.
Science, by definition, is a systematic body of knowledge which studies the cause and effect relationship and endeavors to find out generalization. In simpler terms, it explains the facts. Further, the primary features of science are:
It is a systematic study of any subject
It takes a fact and tries to establish the relationship between cause and effect
Also, the laws of science are universal in nature
Scope of Statistics
Statistics has an extremely wide scope. There is hardly any sphere of human activity where statistics do not show. Be it social sciences or management, all disciplines use statistics in some form. Broadly speaking, the scope of statistics is confined to two main aspects:
The Divisions or Classification of Statistics
The Application of Statistics
Let’s look at the classification of statistics next. We will talk about its applications in our next article.