INFERENTIAL

STATISTICS
BY:
JOHN DENVER P. ATAS
202120215
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Descriptive versus inferential statistics

2. Estimating population parameters from sample
statistics
3. Hypothesis Testing
Inferential Statistics | An Easy Introduction
& Examples
• While descriptive statistics summarize the characteristics of a
data set, inferential statistics help you come to conclusions
and make predictions based on your data.
• When you have collected data from a sample, you can use
inferential statistics to understand the larger population from
which the sample is taken.
• Inferential statistics have two main uses:
• making estimates about populations (for example, the mean
exam score of all takers for college entrance exam).
• testing hypotheses to draw conclusions about populations
(for example, the relationship between exam scores and
family income).
Descriptive versus inferential statistics

• Descriptive statistics allow you to describe a

data set, while inferential statistics allow you to
make inferences based on a data set.
 Descriptive statistics
Using descriptive statistics, you can report characteristics of your
data:
• The distribution concerns the frequency of each value.
• The central tendency concerns the averages of the values.
• The variability concerns how spread out the values are.
• In descriptive statistics, there is no uncertainty – the
statistics precisely describe the data that you collected.
If you collect data from an entire population, you can
directly compare these descriptive statistics to those
from other populations.
 Example: Descriptive statistics

• You collect data on the entrance exam scores of all

students from Carmona for three years.
• You can use descriptive statistics to get a quick
overview of the student’s scores in those years. You can
then directly compare the mean exam score with the
mean scores from other locations.
 Inferential statistics

• Most of the time, you can only acquire data from samples,
because it is too difficult or expensive to collect data from
the whole population that you’re interested in.
• While descriptive statistics can only summarize a sample’s
characteristics, inferential statistics use your sample to
make reasonable guesses about the larger population.
• With inferential statistics, it’s important to use random
and unbiased sampling methods. If your sample isn’t
representative of your population, then you can’t make
valid statistical inferences.
 Example: Inferential statistics

• You randomly select a sample of takers from Carmona

and collect data on their entrance exam scores and
other characteristics.
• You can use inferential statistics to make estimates and
test hypotheses about the whole population of takers
from Carmona based on your sample data.
Sampling error in inferential statistics

• Since the size of a sample is always smaller than the

size of the population, some of the population isn’t
captured by sample data. This creates sampling error,
which is the difference between the true population
values (called parameters) and the measured sample
values (called statistics).
 Estimating Population Parameters from
sample statistics
The characteristics of samples and populations are described by
numbers called statistics and parameters:
• A statistic is a measure that describes the sample (e.g., sample
 mean).
• A parameter is a measure that describes the whole population
(e.g., population mean).
There are two important types of estimates you can make about
the population: point estimates and interval estimates.
• A point estimate is a single value estimate of a parameter. For
instance, a sample mean is a point estimate of a population
mean.
• An interval estimate gives you a range of values where the
parameter is expected to lie. A confidence interval is the most
common type of interval estimate.
 Confidence intervals
• A confidence interval uses the variability around a statistic to
come up with an interval estimate for a parameter. Confidence
intervals are useful for estimating parameters because they take
sampling error into account.
• While a point estimate gives you a precise value for the
parameter you are interested in, a confidence interval tells you
the uncertainty of the point estimate. They are best used in
combination with each other.
 Example: Point estimate and confidence
interval
• You want to know the average compressive strength of
concrete produced by the skilled worker on a
construction site. After collecting concrete cylinder
from a random concrete mixture, you calculate a point
estimate and a confidence interval.
• Your point estimate of the strength of a concrete mixture
produced by a skilled worker has a sample mean of 3500Kn
for a Class A mixture.
• With random sampling, a 95% confidence interval of [3500 to
3600] means you can be reasonably confident that the average
strength of concrete mixture is between 3500kn and 3600kn.
 Hypothesis testing

• Hypothesis testing is a formal process of statistical

analysis using inferential statistics. The goal of
hypothesis testing is to compare populations or assess
relationships between variables using samples.
• Hypotheses, or predictions, are tested using statistical tests.
Statistical tests also estimate sampling errors so that valid
inferences can be made.
• Statistical tests can be parametric or non-parametric. Parametric
tests are considered more statistically powerful because they are
more likely to detect an effect if one exists.
Parametric tests make assumptions that include the following:
• the population that the sample comes from follows a 
normal distribution of scores
• the sample size is large enough to represent the population
• the variances, a measure of spread, of each group being
compared are similar
• Statistical tests come in three forms: tests of
comparison, correlation or regression.
 Comparison tests

• Comparison tests assess whether there are differences in

means, medians or rankings of scores of two or more groups.
• To decide which test suits your aim, consider whether your
data meets the conditions necessary for parametric tests, the
number of samples, and the levels of measurement of your
variables.
 Correlation tests

• Correlation tests determine the extent to which two

variables are associated.
• Although Pearson’s r is the most statistically powerful test,
Spearman’s r is appropriate for interval and ratio variables
when the data doesn’t follow a normal distribution.
 Regression tests

• Regression tests demonstrate whether changes in predictor

variables cause changes in an outcome variable. You can
decide which regression test to use based on the number and
types of variables you have as predictors and outcomes.
• Most of the commonly used regression tests are
parametric. If your data is not normally distributed, you
can perform data transformations.
• Data transformations help you make your data
normally distributed using mathematical operations,
like taking the square root of each value.
THANK YOU 