STATISTICAL TERMS
KEY POINTS
• Difference between questions that could be and could not
be answered using statistics.
• Statistics is a science that studies data.
• There are may uses of Statistics but its main use is in
decision-making
• Logical decisions or solutions to a problem could be attained
through a statistical process.
DATA COLLECTION
In statistical activities, facts are collected from
respondents for purposes of getting aggregate
information, but confidentiality should be protected.
Government agencies mandated to collect data is
bound by law to protect the confidentiality of the
information provided by respondents. Even market
research organizations in the private sector and
individual researchers also guard confidentiality.
DATA
• Are facts and figures that are
presented, collected and analyzed.
• Either numeric or non-numeric and
must be contextualized.
KEY POINTS
DEFINITION OF BASIC TERMS
1. UNIVERSE- the collection or set of units or entities
from whom we got data. (answers the first Ws of
data contextualization)
2. VARIABLE- is a characteristic that is observable or
measurable in every unit of the universe
DEFINITION OF BASIC TERMS
3. POPULATION- the set of all possible values of a
variable
4. SAMPLE- a subgroup of a universe or of a
population is a sample.
BROAD CLASSIFICATION OF VARIABLES
1. QUALITATIVE VARIABLES
– EXPRESS A CATEGORICAL ATTRIBUTE, SUCH
AS SEX (MALE OR FEMALE), RELIGION,
MARITAL STATUS, REGION OF RESIDENCE,
HIGHEST EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT
- ANSWERS THE QUESTIONS “WHAT KIND”.
BROAD CLASSIFICATION OF VARIABLES
2. QUANTITATIVE VARIABLES
– OTHERWISE CALLED NUMERICAL DATA,
WHOSE SIZES ARE MEANINGFUL, ANSWER THE
QUESTIONS SUCH AS “HOW MUCH” OR “HOW
MANY”.
- HAVE ACTUAL UNITS OF MEASURE
QUANTITATIVE DATA MAY BE FURTHER
CLASSIFIED INTO:
A. Discrete Data- are those that can be counted, e.g. the
number of days for cellphones to fail, the ages of
survey respondents measured to the nearest year
B. Continuous data- are those that can be measured, e.g.
the exact height and weight of a survey respondent.
STATISTICAL EXPERIMENT
• AN ACTIVITY THAT WILL PRODUCE
OUTCOMES, OR A PROCESS THAT WILL
GENERATE DATA.
• THE OUTCOMES HAVE A CORRESPONDING
CHANCE OF OCCURENCE
RANDOM VARIABLE
• Is a variable whose possible values are
determined by chance or random experiment
• Is typically represented by an uppercase letter
X
• Can be either discrete or continuous
TYPES OF RANDOM VARIABLES
1. Discrete random variable - the set of
possible outcomes that are countable
2. Continuous random variable - the set of
possible outcomes that are measurable
DISCRETE PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION
• Also called as a probability mass
function consists of the values of
a random variable that can
assume and the corresponding
probabilities of the values.
STEPS IN CONSTRUCTING
PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION OF A
DISCRETE RANDOM VARIABLE X
[Link] the sample size
2. Assign value to the random
variable X in each outcome
3. Assign probability values P(X) to
each value of the random variable.
PROPERTIES OF A PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION
1. The probability of each value of the random variable must
be between or equal to 0 and 1. In symbol, we write it as 0 ≤
P(X) ≤ 1.
2. The sum of the probabilities of all values of the random
variable must be equal to 1.
In symbol, we write Σ P(X)= 1.
