History of statistics

The history of statistics can be said to start around 1749 although, over time, there have been
changes to the interpretation of the word statistics. In early times, the meaning was restricted to
information about states. This was later extended to include all collections of information of all types,
and later still it was extended to include the analysis and interpretation of such data. In modern terms,
"statistics" means both sets of collected information, as in national accounts and temperature records,
and analytical work which requires statistical inference.
Statistical activities are often associated with models expressed using probabilities, and
require probability theory for them to be put on a firmtheoretical basis: see History of probability.
A number of statistical concepts have had an important impact on a wide range of sciences. These
include the design of experiments and approaches to statistical inference such as Bayesian inference,
each of which can be considered to have their own sequence in the development of the ideas
underlying modern statistics.
By the 18th century, the term "statistics" designated the systematic
collection of demographic and economic data by states. In the early 19th century, the meaning of
"statistics" broadened to include the discipline concerned with the collection, summary, and analysis of
data. Today statistics is widely employed in government, business, and all the sciences.
Electronic computers have expedited statistical computation, and have allowed statisticians to develop
"computer-intensive" methods.
The term "mathematical statistics" designates the mathematical theories of probability and statistical
inference, which are used in statistical practice. The relation between statistics and probability theory
developed rather late, however. In the 19th century, statistics increasingly used probability theory,
whose initial results were found in the 17th and 18th centuries, particularly in the analysis of games of
chance (gambling). By 1800, astronomy used probability models and statistical theories, particularly
the method of least squares, which was invented by Legendre and Gauss. Early probability theory and
statistics was systematized and extended by Laplace; following Laplace, probability and statistics have
been in continual development. In the 19th century, statistical reasoning and probability models were
used by social scientists to advance the new sciences of experimental psychologyand sociology, and
by physical scientists in thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. The development of statistical
reasoning was closely associated with the development of inductive logic and the scientific method.
Statistics can be regarded as not a field of mathematics but an autonomous mathematical science,
like computer science and operations research. Unlike mathematics, statistics had its origins in public
administration. It is used in demography and economics. With its emphasis on learning from data and
making best predictions, statistics has a considerable overlap with decision
science and microeconomics. With its concerns with data, statistics has overlap with information
science and computer science.

Etymology
Look up statistics in wiktionary, the free dictionary.

The term statistics is ultimately derived from the New Latin statisticum collegium ("council of state")
and the Italian word statista ("statesman" or "politician"). The German Statistik, first introduced
by Gottfried Achenwall (1749), originally designated the analysis of data about the state, signifying the
"science of state" (then called political arithmetic in English). It acquired the meaning of the collection
and classification of data generally in the early 19th century. It was introduced into English in 1791
by Sir John Sinclair when he published the first of 21 volumes titled Statistical Account of Scotland.[1]
Thus, the original principal purpose of Statistik was data to be used by governmental and (often
centralized) administrative bodies. The collection of data about states and localities continues, largely
through national and international statistical services. In particular, censuses provide frequently
updated information about the population.
The first book to have 'statistics' in its title was "Contributions to Vital Statistics" by Francis GP Neison,
actuary to the Medical Invalid and General Life Office (1st ed., 1845; 2nd ed., 1846; 3rd ed., 1857).

1654 -- Pascal -- mathematics of probability, in correspondence with Fermat

1662 -- William Petty and John Graunt -- first demographic studies
1713 -- Jakob Bernoulli -- Ars Conjectandi
1733 -- DeMoivre -- Approximatio; law of error (similar to standard deviation)
1763 -- Rev. Bayes -- An essay towards solving a problem in the Doctrine of Chances, foundation for "Bayesian
statistics"
1805 -- A-M Legendre -- least square method
1809 -- C. F. Gauss -- Theoria Motus Corporum Coelestium
1812 -- P. S. Laplace -- Théorie analytique des probabilités
1834 -- Statistical Society of London established
1853 -- Adolphe Quetelet -- organized first international statistics conference; applied statistics to biology;
described the bell-shaped curve
1877 -- F. Galton -- regression to the mean
1888 -- F. Galton -- correlation
1889 -- F. Galton -- Natural Inheritance
1900 -- Karl Pearson -- chi square; applied correlation to natural selection
1904 -- Spearman -- rank (non-parametric) correlation coefficient
1908 -- "Student" (W. S. Gossett) -- The probable error of the mean; the t-test
1919 -- R. A. Fisher -- ANOVA; evolutionary biology
1930's -- Jerzy Neyman and Egon Pearson (son of Karl Pearson) -- type II errors, power of a test, confidence
intervals