Meaning and Definition of Statistics

The word statistics is used in two distinct senses in everyday and academic language, and keeping them apart is the first step in this chapter.

Statistics in the plural sense — as numerical data. In its oldest, everyday sense, "statistics" simply means numerical facts collected about some subject — the sales figures of a firm, the population of a district, the daily rainfall of a month, the prices of essential commodities. Used this way, the word is plural: "the statistics of road accidents", "trade statistics", "vital statistics". The Odisha CHSE +2 Commerce Business Mathematics and Statistics syllabus draws on the same well-established treatment of descriptive statistics found in any standard course, applied here specifically to business and commercial data — sales, prices, wages, profits and growth.

Statistics in the singular sense — as a science/method. In its modern, technical sense, "statistics" is the science and art of collecting, organising, presenting, analysing and interpreting numerical data so that sound conclusions can be drawn and sensible decisions taken under conditions of uncertainty. Used this way the word is singular: "statistics is a useful science".

A classic definition (plural sense). Horace Secrist's widely quoted definition captures the plural sense precisely: statistics are aggregates of facts, affected to a marked extent by multiplicity of causes, numerically expressed, enumerated or estimated according to reasonable standards of accuracy, collected in a systematic manner for a predetermined purpose and placed in relation to each other. Each phrase of this definition is really a characteristic of statistical data, examined one by one in §3.

A classic definition (singular sense). Croxton and Cowden defined statistics as the science which deals with the collection, presentation, analysis and interpretation of numerical data — which is exactly the four-fold process the rest of this chapter, and indeed the rest of the subject, is built around.