statistics

• What are official statistics produced for?

  For the government
• What are non-official statistics produced for?

  For non-governmental organizations
• What does nominal data represent?

  The number of times something has occurred
• How is ordinal data characterized?

  Ordered categories with unknown distances
• How does ratio data differ from interval data?

  It starts from zero
• What is raw data?

  Data that hasn't been processed
• What is the average a measure of?

  A measure of central tendency
• How is the mean calculated?

  By adding totals and dividing by count
• What does the median represent?

  The middle value in ordered data
• What is the mode?

  The most common value
• What does standard deviation measure?

  Data variation with respect to the mean
• How is quantitative data typically presented?

  In charts and tables
• What does the horizontal axis in charts represent?

  The independent variables
• What does the vertical axis in charts depict?

  The dependent variables
• What type of data is presented in tables?

  Nominal data
• What are bar charts used for?

  To compare categories or frequencies
• What distinguishes bar charts from histograms?

  Bar charts have gaps between bars
• What do pie charts illustrate?

  The proportions of various categories
• What do scatter graphs show?

  The relationship between two variables
• What do line graphs depict?

  Trends in the data
• What do sociologists aim to find from their data?

  Patterns and trends
• What do statistical tests of significance show?

  The probability of a relationship existing