Types of statistics

In applied statistics, the types of statistics can be divided into two areas: descriptive statistics and inferential statistics.

Descriptive Statistics

Suppose you collect information on the number of students who graduate from high school before the age of 18 state by state in the United States.

You will end up with lots of data.

Just having such a huge and unorganized amount of data is insignificant unless you can use it to draw conclusions or make important decisions.

The best way to create something useful and manageable with the data is to create tables, diagrams, or graphs that summarize the data.

Once you have those tables, graphs, or diagrams that describe the data, it will be much easier to draw conclusions.

You may even use the data to find measures of central tendency such as the average, the mode, or the median.

This is what descriptive statistics is about.

Summary and definition of descriptive statistics

Inferential Statistics

Suppose you want to find the salary of people who are at least 45 years old living in the United States.

To do this, you may select people from all 50 states who are at least 45 years old and find their salaries.

The information will be summarized of course with a graph or a table.

If you are now 21 years old, you can then analyze the graph and make an inference or educated guess.

The graph may tell you what your salary may be like when you reach 45.

Summary and definition of inferential statistics

Inferential statistics is also called inductive statistics.