Skip to main content
Statistics LibreTexts

1.2: What is a statistic? What is a statistical analysis?

  • Page ID
    21996
  • \( \newcommand{\vecs}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}} } \) \( \newcommand{\vecd}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash {#1}}} \)\(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\)\(\newcommand{\AA}{\unicode[.8,0]{x212B}}\)

    The Crash Course video series are great, and there’s one for statistics! Check out this Crach Course Statistics Preview video:

    Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Crash Course Statistics Preview. (Crash Course: Statistics via YouTube )

    You should follow the whole Crash Course Statistics playlist as you go through this textbook's chapters; the chapters won't completely align with the videos, but they will be similar. The Khan Academy also has a great series on statistics (website addres: https://www.khanacademy.org/math/statistics-probability).

    Statistics are the results of statistical analyses, such as the percentage of psychology majors at your school; the analysis was calculating the percentage, while the result is a statistic that you could share.

    Definition: Statistics

    The results of statistical analyses

    Definition: Statistical Analyses

    Procedures to organize and interpret numerical information

    To learn more about what statistics are, you can watch Alan Smith's TED Talk about how so many people are bad at estimating statistics.

    Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Alan Smith's TED Talk on loving statistics. (CC-BY-NC-ND TED Talks via YouTube or directly from TED Talks)

    I have my students watch this video because it shows them that statistics aren't something to be afraid of, and that statistics are really about each of us.

    Learning statistical analysis is actually not that similar to learning mathematical analyses. It’s more like learning to read and interpret another language. Social scientists know that a language is one of the components of a culture; the culture of statistics is the scientific method and probability. We’ll talk about the scientific method next, and will touch on probably when talking about distributions.


    This page titled 1.2: What is a statistic? What is a statistical analysis? is shared under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Michelle Oja.

    • Was this article helpful?