What is Statistics?
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McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Why Study Statistics?
1. Numerical information is everywhere
2. Statistical techniques are used to make decisions
that affect our daily lives
3. The knowledge of statistical methods will help you
understand how decisions are made and give you a
better understanding of how they affect you.
No matter what line of work you select, you will find
yourself faced with decisions where an
understanding of data analysis is helpful.
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What is Meant by Statistics?
Statistics is the science of
collecting, organizing, presenting,
analyzing, and interpreting
numerical data to assist in making
more effective decisions.
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What is Meant by Statistics?
In the more common usage, statistics refers
to numerical information
Examples: the average starting salary of college
graduates, the number of deaths due to alcoholism
last year, the change in the BSKL from yesterday to
today, etc.
We often present statistical information in a
graphical form for capturing reader attention
and to portray a large amount of information.
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Types of Statistics – Descriptive Statistics and
Inferential Statistics
Descriptive Statistics (statistik perihalan) -
methods of organizing, summarizing, and
presenting data in an informative way.
EXAMPLE 1: The US government reports the population
of the US was 179,323,000 in 1960; 203,302,000 in
1970; 226,542,000 in 1980; 248,709,000 in 1990, and
265,000,000 in 2000.
EXAMPLE 2: According to the Department of Statistics,
the average hourly earnings of production workers
was $17.90 for April 2008.
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Types of Statistics – Descriptive Statistics
and Inferential Statistics
Inferential Statistics (statistik penakbiran):
A decision, estimate, prediction, or
generalization about a population,
based on a sample.
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Population vs Sample
A population is a collection of all
possible individuals, objects, or
measurements of interest.
A sample is a portion, or part, of the
population of interest.
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Why take a sample instead of studying every
member of the population?
1. Prohibitive cost of census
2. Destruction of item being studied may be
required
3. Not possible to test or inspect all members
of a population being studied
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Usefulness of a Sample in Learning about a
Population
Using a sample to learn something about a
population is done extensively in business,
agriculture, politics, and government.
EXAMPLE: Television networks constantly
monitor the popularity of their programs by
sampling the preferences of TV viewers.
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Types of Variables
Qualitative or Attribute variable - the
characteristic being studied is non-
numeric.
EXAMPLES: Gender, religious
affiliation, type of automobile owned,
state of birth, eye colour
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Types of Variables
Quantitative variable - information is
reported numerically.
EXAMPLES: balance in your checking
account, minutes remaining in class, or
number of children in a family.
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Quantitative Variables - Classifications
Quantitative variables can be classified
as either discrete or continuous.
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Discrete variables: can only assume
certain values and there are usually
“gaps” between values.
EXAMPLE: the number of bedrooms in a
house, or the number of hammers sold at
Tesco (1,2,3,…,etc).
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Continuous variable can take any value
within a specified range.
EXAMPLE: The pressure in a tire, the weight of
a parcel, or the height of students in a class.
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Summary of Types of Variables
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4 Levels of Measurement (NOIR)
Nominal level - data that is Interval level (selang) - similar to the
classified into categories ordinal level, with the additional
property that meaningful amounts
and cannot be arranged in of differences between data values
any particular order. can be determined; the zero has no
EXAMPLES: eye color, gender, meaning; unmeaningful ratios
religious affiliation. EXAMPLE: temperature (zero celcius
does not mean there’s no
temperature!!), shoe size
Ordinal level – data arranged in
some order/ranking, but the Ratio level (tahap pengukuran data
differences between data berbentuk nisbah) - differences
values cannot be and ratios between 2 values are
determined. meaningful; a meaningful zero
EXAMPLE: performance rating – poor, EXAMPLES: Monthly income (RM vs
good, excellent USD), distance traveled (km vs
miles), age (years vs months),
weight, height
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