Notice that the word statistics is closely related to the word state. Some statistical methods were initially developed by governments as ways of gaining greater control over their populations although it must be said that at the same general time in history individuals such as Florence Nightingale were using statistical methods to try to influence governments to take better care of their citizens.
Nowadays we use statistics whenever we can reasonably assume that random phenomena are at play that we need to take in to account.
Chat with our AI personalities
There are two types of statistics. One is called descriptive statistics and the other is inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics is when you use numbers. Inferential statistics is when you draw conclusions or make predictions.
Psychological statistics is the application of statistics to psychology.
The statistics (pl.) indicate that statistics (sing.) is a pseudo-science.
The two main forms of statistics are qualitative (descriptive) statistics and quantitative (inferential or inductive) statistics.
Distinguish b/w statistics plural & statistics singular.