ABSTRACT
Statistics is a branch of applied mathematics that focuses on studying sample data that are representative of a specific population. Statistics has two general purposes, perhaps best thought of as types of statistics. First, descriptive statistics summarizes and describes sample data representative of the population under study. Second, inferential statistics examines the relationships between and among variables and helps us draw conclusions that can be generalized to the population, thus allowing us to reduce uncertainty in decision-making. Collecting data was arduous and conducting accurate statistical analysis was time-consuming and laborious. This chapter shows that statistical studies offer a viable alternative to census data collection. It presents suggestions to address some of the more common challenges. Some of these solutions are more practical than others and the details of others are beyond the scope of an introductory statistics textbook.
