What Is Inferential And Descriptive Statistics. Descriptive and Inferential Statistics When analysing data such as the grades earned by 100 students it is possible to use both descriptive and inferential statistics in your analysis. Inferential statistics allow you to test a hypothesis or assess whether your data is generalizable to the broader population. Inferential statistics helps to suggest explanations for a situation or phenomenon. Inferential statistics allow you to test a hypothesis or assess whether your data is generalizable to the broader population.
The primary difference between descriptive and inferential statistics is that descriptive statistics is all about illustrating your current dataset whereas inferential statistics focuses on making assumptions on the additional population that is beyond the dataset under study. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics describe what is going on in a population or data set. Whats the difference between descriptive and inferential statistics. While descriptive statistics are a way to review exact numbers inferential statistics allows for generalizations to be made. In order to understand the key differences between descriptive and inferential statistics as well as know when to use them you must first understand what each type of statistics does and what it is used to analyze.
Descriptive statistics describe what is going on in a population or data set.
This is useful for helping us gain a quick and easy understanding of a data set without pouring over all of the individual data values. Inferential statistics allow you to test a hypothesis or assess whether your data is generalizable to the broader population. Descriptive statistics summarize the characteristics of a data set. Typically in most research conducted on groups of people you will use both descriptive and inferential statistics to analyse your results and draw conclusions. It gives information about raw data which describes the data in some manner. Youll need to account for the deadlines you have for research and development to choose which statistic is more viable for you.