Table of Contents
Definition of Inferential Statistics
(noun) The branch of statistics that makes generalizations about a population using data from a sample.
Example of Inferential Statistics
- Determining the percentage of students at a university that like vanilla ice cream by sampling several classes in multiple departments.
Inferential Statistics Pronunciation
Syllabification: in·fer·en·tial sta·tis·tics
Audio Pronunciation
Phonetic Spelling
- American English – /in-fuhr-rEn-shuhl stuh-tIs-tiks/
- British English – /in-fuh-rEn-shuhl stuh-tIs-tiks/
International Phonetic Alphabet
- American English: /ˌɪnfɚˈɹɛnʃəl stəˈtɪstɪks/
- British English: /ˌɪnfəˈɹenʃ(ə)l stəˈtɪstɪks/
Usage Notes
- Inferential statistics uses probability to determine the level of confidence in conclusions drawn from data and called an inference.
- In contrast to inferential statistics, descriptive statistics summarize a sample and inferential statistics uses the sample to make extrapolations about the larger population the sample represents.
- Also called:
- inductive statistics
- statistical inference
Related Video
Additional Information
- Quantitative Research Resources – Books, Journals, and Helpful Links
- Word origin of “inferential” and “statistics” – Online Etymology Dictionary: etymonline.com
Related Terms
- attribute
- correlation
- dependent variable
- empirical evidence
- experimental group
- independent variable
- random sample
- reliability
- spurious correlation
- statistics
Cite the Definition of Inferential Statistics
ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2014. “inferential statistics.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved September 13, 2024 (https://sociologydictionary.org/inferential-statistics/).
APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)
inferential statistics. (2014). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/inferential-statistics/
Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2014. “inferential statistics.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed September 13, 2024. https://sociologydictionary.org/inferential-statistics/.
MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)
“inferential statistics.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2014. Web. 13 Sep. 2024. <https://sociologydictionary.org/inferential-statistics/>.