AN INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS STATISTICS

This chapter presents a brief introduction of business statistics. The word statistics was originally applied to the collection of numerical facts by the State. More recently, the meaning of statistics has broadened to include not only a set of numerical data, but also the processes used in the collection, presentation, analysis, and interpretation of these data. It is convenient to divide statistics into two parts: (1) descriptive statistics and (3) analytical statistics. Sources can be biased. This means that instead of the statistics being completely objective, some subjective consideration causes them to lean in a particular direction. The things that statisticians seek to measure—height, weight, wages, unemployment, prices, etc.—are known as variables. As the term implies, variables are studied because some variation in their value is anticipated. Variables are divided into two types: discrete variables and continuous variables. Primary statistics are collected by the investigator when he searches out new information. Secondary statistics are those which an investigator obtains from other sources.