The concept, origin and development of statistics

The concept of statistics comes from the Latin word status, which means state.

It is believed that statistics emerged in the mid-18th century due to the need to collect demographic and economic data for the state. The connection between statistics and probability emerged relatively late, only in the 19th century, although the theory of probability began to develop much earlier. At that time, the German physicist and mathematician Gauss discovered the method of least squares, and the entire statistical knowledge of that time was systematized by Laplace.

In the 19th century, mathematical statistics were introduced into new sciences - experimental psychology and sociology. Statistics is also beginning to be used intensively in the natural sciences, primarily in physics.

The development of statistical reasoning is closely related to the development of inductive logic and scientific method and can be said to represent the mathematical foundation of these disciplines.

Subject of statistics

The subject of statistics is the collection of data, their interpretation and, based on that data, drawing conclusions about the phenomenon that is the subject of study. The subject of study of statistics defined in this way also includes all other processes of gathering knowledge about the phenomenon, such as finding patterns in data, etc.

Statistics is a scientific approach to data analysis in order to ensure maximum understanding, interpretation and usefulness of data. Data is most often understood as numerical, quantitative data, and the task of statistics is to process them and turn them into information.

Some of the questions to which the principles and methodology of statistics provide answers are:

  • What data and how much data should be collected?
  • How to organize and interpret data?
  • How to analyze data and draw conclusions?
  • How to assess the strength of the conclusion drawn?

Goals of statistics

The main goals of statistics are to enable:

  • drawing conclusions about the population based on information about the sample, which includes assessing the degree of unreliability of such a conclusion and
  • designing the process and determining the size of the sample so that valid conclusions about the population can be drawn from the data.

Relationship of statistics to other scientific fields

Statistics is not a branch of mathematics, but an autonomous mathematical science that has been associated with demography and economics since its inception.

Through the scientific method and inductive reasoning, statistics is related to the philosophy of science, and statistics' emphasis on learning about data and prediction connects it to decision science and microeconomics.

Computer science and statistics have a common field, which is data. Modern statistics are unthinkable without the intensive use of computers, while on the other hand, the development of statistical methods greatly contributes to the development of computer theory and practice.