History Of Statistics

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STATISTICS

Statistics is the formal science of making effective use of numerical data relating to groups of individuals or experiments. It deals with all aspects of this, including not only the collection, analysis and interpretation of such data, but also the planning of the collection of data, in terms of the design of surveys and experiments.[1]

A statistician is particularly thorough in the ways of thinking necessary for the successful application of statistical analysis. Often such people have gained this experience after starting work in any of a number of fields.

The word statistics can either be singular or plural.[2] When it refers to the discipline, "statistics" is singular, as in "Statistics is an art." When it refers to quantities (such as mean and median) calculated from a set of data,[3] statistics is plural, as in "These statistics are misleading."

HISTORY

Some scholars pinpoint the origin of statistics to 1663, with the publication of Natural and Political Observations upon the Bills of Mortality by John Graunt.[10] Application of statistics revolved around the needs of states ...
... to base policy on demographic and economic data, hence its stat- etymology. The scope of the discipline of statistics broadened in the early 19th century to include the collection and analysis of data in general. Today, statistics is widely employed in government, business, and the natural and social sciences.

Its was founded in 17th century with the development of probability theory by Blaise Pascal and Pierre de Fermat. Probability theory arose from the study of games of chance. The method of least squares was first described by Carl Friedrich Gauss around 1794

HISTORY OF STATISTICS

By the 18th century, "statistics" denoted the collation of demographic and economic data by states. In the early 19th century, the meaning of "statistics" broadened, then including the discipline concerned with the collection, summary, and analysis of data. Today statistics is widely employed in government, business, and all the sciences.

In the 19th century, statistics used theory of probability, starting results of which were found in the 17th and 18th centuries, particularly in the analysis of games of chance (gambling). Early theory of probability and statistics was extended by Laplace; following Laplace, probability and statistics have been in continual development.
Statistics is not a field of mathematics but an autonomous mathematical science, like computer science or operations research. With its emphasis on learning from data and making best predictions, statistics has great overlap with the decision science and microeconomics.

Statistics is derived from the Latin word ‘status’ which means a political state. This conveys that statistics is as old as human civilization. Probability theory like many other branches of mathematics, evolved out of particular consideration. It had its origin in the 16th century when an Italian physician and mathematician Jereome Cardon (1501 – 1576) wrote the first book on the subject “Books on Games of Chance”. It was published in 1663 after his death.

In 3050 B.C., perhaps the first census was held in Egypt. In India, about 200 years ago, we had an efficient system of collecting administrative statistics, particularly during the regime of Chandra Gupta Maurya (324 – 300 B.C). The system of collecting data related to births and deaths is mentioned in Kautilya’s Arthshastra (around 300 B.C.) A detailed account of administrative surveys conducted during Akbar’s regime is given in Ain-I-Akbari written by Abul Fazl.

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