Uses of Statistics in Daily Life

Students often ask the question that what are the uses of statistics in daily life.  Statistics are set of equations that can help us solve problems. It help shape our life and solve day-to-day problems without even knowing it. Statistics help us understand our present, future and past. Statistics is part of every field of life, consciously or unconsciously we apply it to our life. We analyze data in different fields using statistics, we observe the change pattern and make conclusions about the future.

Some uses of statistics in daily life

Here we are going to discuss some of the more common uses of statistics in our daily life. There are a lot more uses of statistics that we encounter in our daily life. According to Wikipedia Statistics is the branch of mathematics that deal with the data collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation. When we talk about the uses of statistics in our daily life we must think about all the functions of statistics.

Predictions

Statistics help us make predictions about something that can happen in the future. On the basis of what we encounter in our daily life we make predictions about the future. How accurate that prediction will be depends on many factors. When we make a prediction we keep into account the external or internal factors that might effect our future. The same statisticians use when they apply statistical techniques to predict a phenomenon.

Doctors, engineers, artists, and businessmen all use statistics to make predictions about future events. For example, doctors use statistics to understand the future of a disease. They are better able to predict about the prevalence of flue each winter season through the use of statistics. Engineers use statistics to predict about the success of their ongoing project, they also use statistics to predict how long it will take to complete a project.  More than anyone politicians use statistics to predict future and to make very important decisions.

Quality testing

Quality testing is another very important use of statistics in every field of life. On day-to-day basis we do quality testing to ensure that our purchases are correct and to get the best results from what we spend. We test a sample of what we expect to purchase in order to make sure that we will get the best. If the sample that we tested passes the quality test then we want to buy it.

When we go to the grocery stores sometimes companies promote their products by advertising free samples of their products. These samples help us determine whether they are good enough to be purchased or not. Although such marketing tactics help lure more customers towards their product but a wise customer can easily determine whether the product is worth buying or not.

Census

Census is one of the major part of statistics that is used by the government organizations. Census is done by the government organizations but the resultant data helps both government and non-government organizations in understanding population characteristics. Various inferences are drawn from the data that the government organizations gather through census.

Sampling

When we talk about the uses of statistics and the data involved in the statistics we are basically taking into account mostly samples. The uses of statistics are mostly applied to a sample of the whole population. The sample helps us understand the whole population. This sample can belong to a group of people that have to be studied by a researcher or a sample of fabric that has been sampled out to know the characteristics of the whole batch.

Sampling is performed in every industry in every business and even at homes. This sampling makes it easier and possible for us to understand the characteristics of the whole population. Census data is collected every few years in the United States to know about the characteristics of the population. When it is not possible to collect a whole census data and government organizations want to know about a certain feature of the population they use a sample of the population to predict the features of the whole population. Often sampling is used in the medical science to know the prevalence, and other characteristics of a disease.

Inferences and causality

One purpose and use of statistics is to draw conclusions, make inferences, and draw causality about a phenomenon or a situation. In day-to-day life we use statistics to do the same, for example, if someone get sick we use sometimes crude and sometimes sophisticated ways to find out the reason. Doctors ask questions from the patient and perform some tests to know the cause of a disease. In medical science, researchers use the data available from various hospitals and caregivers to deduce the reason behind a disease and its prevalence.

References

• “Statistics”. Wikipedia. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistics#Statistics_in_society> Retrieved on 1/28/209.
• “Essay on Statistics: Meaning and Definition of Statistics“. Economic Discussion. <http://www.economicsdiscussion.net/essays/essay-on-statistics-meaning-and-definition-of-statistics/2315>. Retrieved on 1/28/2019.
• “Philosophy of Statistics”. (2014). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. <https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/statistics/#StaInd>. Retrieved on 1/28/2019.

 

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