Statistics in Real Life

    The word 'statistics' is from German Statistik, "description of a state, a country". Statistics is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a scientific, industrial, or social problem, it is conventional to begin with a statistical population or a statistical model to be studied. Populations can be diverse groups of people or objects such as "all people living in a country" or "every atom composing a crystal". Statistics deals with every aspect of data, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments.

    In our daily life we use statistics for so many reasons. When census data cannot be collected, statisticians collect data by developing specific experiment designs and survey samples. Statistics is applicable to a wide variety of academic disciplines, including natural and social sciences, government, and business. Business statistics applies statistical methods in econometrics, auditing and production and operations, including services improvement and marketing research. In business, "statistics" is a widely used management- and decision support tool. It is particularly applied in financial management, marketing management, and production, services and operations management. Individuals use statistics to make decisions in financial planning and budgeting, while organizations are guided by statistics in financial policy decisions. Banks use statistics to lower risk in lending operations, analyze activity in the financial market, and predict the impact of economic crises.

Ms. Jahana Farsana, Assistant Professor of Statistics, Al Shifa College of Arts and Science, Keezhattur, Perinthalmanna