Descriptive statistics includes methods and procedures for presenting and summarizing data.

The purpose of descriptive statistics is to use a few numbers to describe the meaning of the data behind them. The data is obtained from observations of a set of different cases, which can be people, animals, cities, schools, various events, or some combination of the above.

Descriptive statistics are usually the first step in data analysis, and are used to describe the data collected. Descriptive statistics usually precede statistical inference and prediction, but can also be the ultimate goal of statistical analysis. Drawing conclusions is the subject of another area of ​​statistics called inferential statistics.

The most commonly used procedures in descriptive statistics are graphical and tabular presentation of data and calculation of measures of central tendency and variability. Most authors classify measures of correlation and association of variables as descriptive statistics, because they describe the relationship between two or more variables.