Data and Statistics

A student may ask us:

Are data and statistics the same thing?

Our reply may be:

Although in everyday spoken English, students sometimes use the terms data and statistics to mean the same thing, in fact they have different meanings. Data is the basic information obtained from research. When this data has been analyzed, it is possible to put together statistics.

Data is just a lot of numbers and facts. Statistics can suggest what this information means.

Statistics tell us in numbers what a quantity may be. Often this information is presented in tables and charts that organize lists of numbers.  Researchers, students, ajarns, and librarians appreciate statistics for the information and meaning they contain.

The Statistical Abstract of the United States was formerly published by the United States Census Bureau, an agency of the United States Department of Commerce. It was printed every year from 1878 to 2012, presenting statistics about social and economic conditions in the United States. This was very useful to researchers, including students preparing theses and academic research projects. However, the U.S. Census Bureau decided to save money by stopping the publication of the Statistical Abstract of the United States. It stopped compiling the data on which it is based, along with the supplemental products, as of October 1, 2011. The Census Bureau claimed that

The decision to propose the elimination of this program was not made lightly.

But devoted readers of the Statistical Abstract did not agree with this cost-cutting move.  The American Library Association, representing over 16,000 public libraries and more than 100,000 academic and school libraries, protested, and a Facebook page and a petition were started. Some librarians stated that The Statistical Abstract was the most often consulted and valuable reference book their libraries owned.

ProQuest continued the series, in co-operation with Bernan Press. As ProQuest’s website explains:

Published annually by the federal government since 1878, the Statistical Abstract of the United States is the best known statistical reference publication in the country, and perhaps the world. You’ll find it behind nearly every reference desk in U.S. libraries as the authoritative go-to source. Librarians value the Statistical Abstract as both an answer book and a guide to statistical sources. As a comprehensive collection of statistics on the social, political, and economic conditions of the United States, it is a snapshot of America and its people… ProQuest has now taken on responsibility for updating and releasing this publication, the most used statistical reference tool in U.S. libraries. We bring to this task 35 years experience acquiring, abstracting, and indexing federal government statistical publications and tables.

The student may ask:

Why do we need data?

Our answer may be:

Data can help us to explain why things happen or how they became that way. If we analyze data usefully, it can add to our knowledge and understanding.

The student may also want to know:

Are statistics and analytics the same thing?

We might answer:

Statistics and analytics are two terms with different meanings. Statistics is about collecting, analyzing, interpreting, organizing, and presenting data. Analytics is a general term that can be used to describe most types of data analysis, or getting useful information from data. Statistical analysis, data mining, and machine learning are all forms of analytics. Analytics uses statistics to find meaning.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)