What is Statistics?

Here are some definitions

• a collection of procedures and principles for gaining information in order to make decisions when faced with uncertainty (J. Utts)

• a way of taming uncertainty, of turning raw data into arguments that can resolve profound questions (T. Amabile)

• the science of gaining information from numerical data (D.S. Moore)

• the explanation of variation in the context of what remains unexplained (D. Kaplan)

• the science of drawing conclusions from data with the aid of the mathematics of probability (S. Garfunkel)

• the mathematics of the collection, organization, and interpretation of numerical data, especially the analysis of a population's characteristics by inference from sampling (American Heritage Dictionary)

Etymology of the word 'statistics'

• statistics is political right down to its etymology

This page maintained by:
Randall Pruim
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Calvin College
rpruim@calvin.edu