Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation and presentation of data.

It deals with all aspects of data, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments.

Descriptive statistics. This is a set of methods to describe data that we have collected. 1. Ex. Of 350 randomly selected people in the town of Luserna, Italy, 280 people had the last name Nicolussi. An example of descriptive statistics is the following statement : "80% of these people have the last name Nicolussi." 2. Ex. On the last 3 Sundays, Henry D. Carsalesman sold 2, 1, and 0 new cars respectively. An example of descriptive statistics is the following statement : "Henry averaged 1 new car sold for the last 3 Sundays." These are both descriptive statements because they can actually be verified from the information provided. Inferential statistics. This is a set of methods used to make a generalization, estimate, prediction or decision. 1. Ex. Of 350 randomly selected people in the town of Luserna, Italy, 280 people had the last name Nicolussi. An example of inferential statistics is the following statement : "80% of all people living in Italy have the last name Nicolussi." We have no information about all people living in Italy, just about the 350 living in Luserna. We have taken that information and generalized it to talk about all people living in Italy. The easiest way to tell that this statement is not descriptive is by trying to verify it based upon the information provided. The major use of inferential statistics is to use information from a sample (Specific) to infer something about a population (General). Population a population is the group of all items of interest to a statistics practitioner. frequently very large; sometimes infinite. E.g. All 5 million Florida voters Sample A sample is a set of data drawn from the population. Potentially very large, but less than the population. E.g. a sample of 765 voters exit polled on election day. Quantitative Variables - Variables whose values result from counting or measuring something. Examples: height, weight, time in the 100 yard dash, number of items sold to a shopper Qualitative Variables - Variables that are not quantitative. Their values do not result from measuring or counting. Examples: hair color, religion, political party, profession What are quantitative and qualitative data? Quantitative data are measures of values or counts and are expressed as numbers. Quantitative data are data about numeric variables (e.g. how many; how much; or how often). Qualitative data are measures of 'types' and may be represented by a name, symbol, or a number code. Qualitative data are data about categorical variables (e.g. what type). Quantitative = Quantity Qualitative = Quality

Data collected about a numeric variable will always be quantitative and data collected about a categorical variable will always be qualitative. Therefore, you can identify the type of data, prior to collection, based on whether the variable is numeric or categorical. Why are quantitative and qualitative data important? Quantitative and qualitative data provide different outcomes, and are often used together to get a full picture of a population. For example, if data are collected on annual income (quantitative), occupation data (qualitative) could also be gathered to get more detail on the average annual income for each type of occupation. Quantitative and qualitative data can be gathered from the same data unit depending on whether the variable of interest is numerical or categorical. For example:

Data unit A person

Numeric variable = Quantitative data "How many children do you 4 children have?" "How much do you earn?" "How many hours do you work?" $60,000 p.a. 38 hours per week

Categorical variable = Qualitative data "In which country were your children born?" "Do you work full-time or part-time?" Australia

"What is your occupation?" Photographer Full-time

A house

"How many square metres is 200 square metres the house?" 264 employees 36 cows

"In which city or town is the Brisbane house located?" "What is the industry of the Retail business?" "What is the Dairy main activity of the farm?"

A business "How many workers are currently employed?" A farm "How many milk cows are located on the farm?

Qualitative variable There are two basic types of variables: (1) qualitative and (2) quantitative (see Chart 12). When the characteristic being studied is nonnumeric, it is called a qualitative variable or an attribute. Examples of qualitative variables are gender, religious affiliation, type of automobile owned, state of birth, and eye color. When the data are qualitative, we are usually interested in how many or what proportion fall in each category. For example, what percent of the population has blue eyes? How many Catholics and how many Protestants are there in the United States? What percent of the total number of cars sold last month were SUVs? Qualitative data are often summarized in charts and bar graphs (Chapter 2). CHART 1-2 Summary of the Types of Variables

Quantitative variable When the variable studied can be reported numerically, the variable is called a quantitative variable. Examples of quantitative variables are the balance in your checking account, the ages of company presidents, the life of an automobile battery (such as 42 months), and the number of children in a family. Quantitative variables are either discrete or continuous. Discrete variables can assume only certain values, and there are gaps between the values. Examples of discrete variables are the number of bedrooms in a h ouse (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.), the number of cars arriving at Exit 25 on I-4 in Florida near Walt Disney World in an hour (326, 421, etc.), and the number of students in each section of a statistics course (25 in section A, 42 in section B, and 18 in section C). We count, for example, the number of cars arriving at Exit 25 on I-4, and we count the number of statistics students in each section. Notice that a home can have 3 or 4 bedrooms, but it cannot have 3.56 bedrooms. Thus, there is a gap between possible values. Typically, discrete variables result from counting. Observations of a continuous variable can assume any value within a specific range. Examples of continuous variables are the air pressure in a tire and the weight of a shipment of tomatoes. Other examples are the amount of raisin bran in a box and the duration of flights from Orlando to San Diego. Grade point average (GPA) is a continuous variable. We could report the GPA of a particular student as 3.2576952. The usual practice is to round to 3 places3.258. Typically, continuous variables result from measuring.