Scope of Statistics:

Scope of Statistics:

Statistics is not a mere device for collecting numerical data,

but as a means of developing sound techniques for their handling, analysing and drawing valid inferences from them. Statistics is applied  in  every  sphere  of  human  activity  –  social  as  well  as physical – like Biology, Commerce, Education, Planning, Business Management, Information Technology, etc. It is almost impossible to  find  a  single  department  of  human  activity  where  statistics cannot be applied. We now discuss briefly the applications of statistics in other disciplines.

Statistics and Industry:             

Statistics is widely used in many industries. In industries,

control charts are widely used to maintain a certain quality level. In production engineering, to find whether the product is conforming to specifications or not, statistical tools, namely inspection plans, control charts, etc., are of extreme importance. In inspection plans we have to  resort to some kind of sampling – a very important aspect of Statistics.

Statistics and Commerce:

Statistics   are   lifeblood   of   successful   commerce.   Any

businessman cannot afford to either by under stocking or having overstock of his goods. In the beginning he estimates the demand for  his goods  and  then takes steps to  adjust  with his output or purchases.   Thus   statistics   is   indispensable   in   business   and commerce.

As so many multinational companies have invaded into our

Indian economy, the size and volume of business is increasing.  On one side the stiff competition is increasing whereas on the other side the tastes are changing and new fashions are emerging. In this

connection, market survey plays an important role to exhibit the present conditions and to forecast the likely changes in future.

Statistics and Agriculture:

Analysis  of  variance    (ANOVA)  is  one  of the  statistical

tools developed by Professor R.A. Fisher, plays a prominent role in agriculture experiments. In tests of significance based on small samples, it can be shown that statistics is adequate to test the significant difference between two sample means. In analysis of variance, we are concerned with the testing of equality of several population means.

For an example, five fertilizers are applied to five plots each of wheat and the yield of wheat on each of the plots are given. In such a situation, we are interested in finding out whether the effect of these fertilisers on the yield is significantly different or not. In other words, whether the samples are drawn from the same normal population or not. The answer to this problem is provided by the technique    of ANOVA and it is used to test the homogeneity of several population means.

1.6.4   Statistics and Economics:

Statistical   methods   are   useful  in   measuring   numerical

changes  in  complex  groups  and  interpreting  collective phenomenon. Nowadays the uses of statistics are abundantly made in any economic study. Both in economic theory and practice, statistical methods play an important role.

Alfred Marshall said, “ Statistics are the straw only which I like every other economist have to make the bricks”. It may also be noted  that  statistical  data  and  techniques  of statistical tools  are immensely  useful  in  solving  many  economic  problems  such  as wages, prices, production, distribution of income and wealth and so on. Statistical tools like Index numbers, time series Analysis, Estimation  theory,  Testing  Statistical  Hypothesis  are  extensively used in economics.

Statistics and Education:

Statistics is widely used in education. Research has become

a  common  feature  in  all  branches  of  activities.  Statistics  is necessary for the formulation of policies to start new course, consideration of facilities available for new courses etc. There are

many people engaged in research work to test the past knowledge and evolve new knowledge. These are possible only through statistics.

Statistics and Planning:

Statistics is indispensable in planning. In the modern world, which can be termed as the “world of planning”, almost all the organisations in the government are seeking the help of planning for efficient working, for the formulation of policy decisions and execution of the same.

In  order  to  achieve  the  above  goals,  the  statistical  data

relating to production, consumption, demand, supply, prices, investments,   income   expenditure   etc   and   various   advanced statistical  techniques  for  processing,  analysing  and  interpreting such complex data are of importance. In India statistics play an important role in planning, commissioning both at the central and state government levels.

Statistics and Medicine:

In  Medical  sciences,  statistical  tools  are  widely  used.  In

order to test the efficiency of a new drug or medicine, t - test is used or to compare the efficiency of two drugs or two medicines, t- test for the two samples is used. More and more applications of statistics are at present used in clinical investigation.

Statistics and Modern applications:

Recent developments in the fields of computer technology

and information technology have enabled statistics to integrate their models   and   thus   make   statistics   a   part   of  decision  making procedures of many organisations. There are so many software packages available for solving design of experiments, forecasting simulation problems etc.

SYSTAT,  a  software  package  offers  mere  scientific  and

technical   graphing   options   than   any   other   desktop   statistics package. SYSTAT supports all types of scientific and technical research in various diversified fields as follows

1.   Archeology: Evolution of skull dimensions

2.   Epidemiology: Tuberculosis

3.   Statistics: Theoretical distributions

4.   Manufacturing: Quality improvement

5.   Medical research: Clinical investigations.

6.   Geology:  Estimation  of  Uranium  reserves  from  ground

water

Limitations of statistics:

Statistics  with all its  wide  application in every sphere  of human activity has its own limitations.   Some of them are given below.

1.      Statistics  is  not   suitable  to  the  study  of  qualitative

phenomenon:  Since statistics is basically a science and deals with a set of numerical data, it is applicable to the study of only  these  subjects  of enquiry,  which  can  be  expressed  in terms of quantitative measurements. As a matter of fact, qualitative phenomenon like honesty, poverty, beauty, intelligence etc,cannot be expressed numerically and any statistical   analysis   cannot   be   directly   applied   on   these qualitative phenomenons. Nevertheless, statistical techniques may be applied indirectly by first reducing the qualitative expressions to accurate quantitative terms. For example, the intelligence of a group of students can be studied on the basis of their marks in a particular examination.

2.      Statistics does not study individuals:   Statistics does not give any specific importance to the individual items, in fact it deals  with  an aggregate  of objects.  Individual items,  when they are taken individually do  not  constitute  any statistical data and do not serve any purpose for any statistical enquiry.

3.      Statistical  laws  are  not  exact:  It   is  well  known  that

mathematical and physical sciences are exact. But statistical laws  are  not  exact  and  statistical  laws  are  only approximations.  Statistical  conclusions  are  not  universally true. They are true only on an average.

4.      Statistics   table may be misused:   Statistics must be used only by experts; otherwise, statistical methods are the most dangerous  tools  on  the  hands  of  the  inexpert.  The  use of statistical tools by the inexperienced and untraced persons might lead to wrong conclusions. Statistics can be easily misused by quoting wrong figures of data.   As   King   says aptly ‘ statistics are like clay of which one can make a God or evil as one pleases’ .

5.      Statistics  is  only,  one  of  the  methods  of  studying  a problem:

Statistical method  do  not  provide complete solution of the problems  because  problems  are  to  be  studied  taking  the

background of the countries culture, philosophy or  religion into   consideration.   Thus  the  statistical  study  should  be

supplemented by other evidences.