Table of Contents
Definitions of Statistics
- (noun) (singular) The scientific discipline that deals with the assemblage, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of numerical data.
- (noun) (plural) The data produced from the scientific discipline of statistics.
Statistics Pronunciation
Syllabification: sta·tis·tics
Audio Pronunciation
Phonetic Spelling
- American English – /stuh-tIs-tiks/
- British English – /stuh-tIs-tiks/
International Phonetic Alphabet
- American English – /stəˈtɪstɪks/
- British English – /stəˈtɪstɪks/
Usage Notes
- Plural: statistics
- A prediction made from statistical data is a statistical inference.
- Informally called stats.
- Historically called statistology.
- Statistics are useful in sociology and are often complemented with qualitative research.
- A (noun) statistician specializes in (adjective) statistical knowledge and interpreting statistics (adverb) statistically through (noun) statistical analysis.
Related Quotation
- “Existing data sources for [secondary analysis] include public records, official reports of organizations or government agencies, and raw data collected by other researchers. For example, Durkheim used vital statistics (death) that were originally collected for other purposes to examine the relationship among variables such as age, marital status, and the circumstances surrounding a person’s suicide” (Kendall 2006:32–33).
Related Video
Additional Information
- Quantitative Research Resources – Books, Journals, and Helpful Links
- Word origin of “statistics” – Online Etymology Dictionary: etymonline.com
Related Terms
- control group
- correlation
- data
- dependent variable
- descriptive statistics
- independent variable
- inferential statistics
- negative correlation
- positive correlation
- research
Reference
Kendall, Diana. 2006. Sociology in Our Times: The Essentials. 5th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Cite the Definition of Statistics
ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2014. “statistics.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved December 14, 2024 (https://sociologydictionary.org/statistics/).
APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)
statistics. (2014). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/statistics/
Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2014. “statistics.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed December 14, 2024. https://sociologydictionary.org/statistics/.
MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)
“statistics.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2014. Web. 14 Dec. 2024. <https://sociologydictionary.org/statistics/>.