Zoom in & Zoom out/ Inferential Statistics & Descriptive Statistics

Statistical Analysis is split into two parts Descriptive Statistics and Inferential Statistics. Zooming into the data or taking a close up view of data can be metaphorical linked to Inferential Statistics. Zooming out or overview of the data is provided by Descriptive Statistics.

Data collected are in raw form. This data is a sample and has a predetermined sample size. Some statistical measures provide a summary of the story told by this data. This summary can be provided quantitatively in the form of Descriptive Statistics. Mean, Mode, Median, Variance etc are some of Descriptive Statistics tools. Graphical representations like pie chart, bar chart, box plots, pareto charts etc provide a visual summary of the data. These immediately follow data collection process and help us in getting “acquainted” with the data. These are one of the first milestones in the long road leading to good statistical inference. Inferential statistics are milestone appearing from half of the journey in this road. Inferential Statistics frequently uses results from descriptive statistics for making valid inferences about the population from the sample.