What is statistics?

What Does statistics Mean

The term statistics comes from the Latin statisticum collegium ( "council of state" ) and from its Italian derivative statista ( "statesman or politician" ). In 1749 , the German Gottfried Achenwall began to use the German word statistik to designate the analysis of state data . Therefore, the origins of statistics are related to the government and its administrative bodies.

Today it can be said that the collection and interpretation of the data obtained in a study is the task of statistics, considered as a branch of mathematics . The statistics (the result of applying a statistical algorithm to a data set) allow decision-making within the governmental level, but also in the world of business and commerce.

In addition to all the above, we must make it clear that for this branch of Mathematics to take place and develop its work, it must have a series of instruments that have become fundamental. Specifically, we refer to the so-called measurement levels (interval, nominal, ratio and ordinal), observational studies and also statistical analysis techniques.
This last group of tools should include some as well-known and important as statistical frequency, analysis of variance, statistical graph, regression analysis, Student's t test or confirmatory factor analysis.
The applied statistics can be divided into two branches: descriptive statistics (refer to the collection methods, description, display and summary data that can be displayed numerically or graphically) and statistical inference (generation models and predictions related to the studied phenomena, taking into account the random aspect and the uncertainty in the observations).
In addition to applied statistics, there is also a discipline called mathematical statistics , which covers the theoretical bases of the subject.
When speaking of this scientific branch we cannot ignore the fact that in Spain there is what is known as the National Institute of Statistics (INE). An organism is of great value because it is in charge of undertaking a series of essential functions for the State. Specifically, and according to current legislation, its mission is to carry out, for example, the different demographic and economic censuses.
The electoral census and statistical operations around the national accounts are other works carried out by this aforementioned body, which has among its most relevant areas the Department of Planning, Coordination and Statistical Dissemination as well as the Department of Economic Accounts and Employment or the Department of Sampling Data Collect.
All this without forgetting that in Spain there is also an Interministerial Statistics Commission, a Higher Statistics Council and an Interterritorial Statistics Committee.

The methods statistical and mathematical , in turn, arose from the theory of probability , which calculates the frequency of occurrence of a result in an experiment under conditions sufficiently stable.
At present, statistical practices have advanced and have been perfected thanks to the creation of precise instruments that allow the development of public policies.