University of Southern Caribbean

BA/BSc Programme
Stat 285- Elementary Statistics

LECTURER : Kenata Daniel

e-mail : Stat1255@gmail.com
Days: Tuesday and Thursday

Unit 1: Introduction to Statistics

Learning Goals:
Students should be able to:
 differentiate the types of statistics
 differentiate between population and sample
 define element ,variable ,observation and data set
 identify types of variables: quantitative and qualitative
 differentiate between cross-section and time series data
 identify different sources of data
 use the ∑ notation

What is Statistics?
Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation and presentation
of data. It deals with all aspects of data, including the planning of data collection in terms of the
design of surveys and experiments.

The study of statistics can be subdivided into two areas

 Descriptive: which consist of methods for organising, displaying and describing data using
tables, graphs and summary measures.

 Inferential: which consist of methods that use sample results to help make decisions or
predictions about a population

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In order to fully appreciate the use of statistics the reader must firstly be acquainted with the
following terms and definitions.

 Population or Target population: is a complete well defined list of items whose

characteristics are being studied

 Sample : is a subset or portion of the population selected for study

 Advantage : relatively cheap and easy to perform analysis

 Disadvantage : can be unrepresentative of the population

 Representative sample: this is a sample that represents all of characteristics of the

population.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN POPULATION AND SAMPLE

 Element or member : is a specific subject or object about which the information is

collected

Ex. The table below displays the funds received by three charitable homes from citizens
and various religious organisations in Trinidad and Tobago in 2003.

Charitable Organisations Funds received

St James Day Care Centre $ 5000
TT Special Kids $ 3145
Blind Welfare Association $ 12000

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 From the table the elements are represented in YELLOW followed by the observations
represented in RED and the variable under consideration in PURPLE.

A variable is a characteristic under study or investigation that assumes different values

for different elements.

An observation or measurement is the value of a variable for an element.

Data / Data set is a collection of observations or measurements on a variable.

In Class Activity:

Types of Variables

A variable can be considered as either quantitative or qualitative

A quantitative variable is a variable that can be recorded and measured numerically.
For example age, height, number of siblings.

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 Whereas a qualitative or categorical variable is a variable that cannot be measured
numerically but can be classified by two or more categories. E.g gender and class of
degree.

Quantitative and Qualitative variables can further be subdivided into two or more
categories from the diagram below

Discrete variable is a (quantitative) variable whose values are countable (it can ONLY take
EXACT values and there is a distinct gap between one value and another). For example cash in
hand, number of matches won etc.

Continuous variable is a (quantitative) variable that can assume any numerical value or a
certain interval or intervals .The number value is on the number line and it can be anywhere
along the continuum. For example height, foreign exchange rate etc.

Ordinal is a (qualitative) variable that can be counted and ranked but not measured. For
example class of degree. Another example of an ordinal data organization is a set of survey
answers listed as "very satisfactory," "satisfactory," "neutral," "unsatisfactory," or "very
unsatisfactory."

Nominal is a (qualitative) variable that is organised by category or name. An example of a

nominal data organisation set is "basketball positions," which includes "point guard," "shooting
guard," "small forward," "power forward," and "center”.

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Cross-Section Data
This is data collected on different elements at the same point in time or for the same period in
time. For example the table displays the funds received by three charitable homes from citizens
and various religious organisations in Trinidad and Tobago in 2003.

Period 2003
Charitable Organisations Funds received
St James Day Care Centre $ 5000
TT Special Kids $ 3145
Blind Welfare Association $ 12000

Time-Series Data

This is data collected on the same element for the same variable at different points in time.

For example

Funds Received for the Period 2003- 2006

Year 2003 2004 2005 2006
Charitable
Organisation

TT Special Kids $ 3145 $5600 $ 8000 $ 4000

Types of Data / Sources of Data

Primary Data: - is considered to be first hand data and refers to data that collected directly by
the researcher from the population of interest. This type of data is usually very reliable for
example interviewing USC students between classes to find out their views on the Hall
accommodations.

Secondary Data: - is considered to be second hand data which refers to data collected by
some other agency for their own purposes but which is accessed by a researcher for a different
study for example data accessed via the internet. It is easy to access and relatively cheap
however it may not be reliable.

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The Sigma Notation

Exercises (will not be graded)

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