The Nature of Statistics

Statistics enters into almost every phase of life in some way. A daily news broadcast may start with a weather forecast and end with an analysis of the stock market. In a newspaper at hand we see in the first five pages stories on an increase in the wholesale price index, an increase in the number of habeas corpus petitions filed, new findings on mothers who smoke, the urgent need for timber laws, a state board plan for evaluation of teachers, popularity of new commuting buses, a desegregation plan, and sex bias. Each article reports some information, proposal, or conclusion based on the organization and analysis of numerical data.