USE OF STATISTICS AND MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT ITS USES AMONGST USERS OF STATISTICS

Abstract

The word ‘Statistics’ conveys meaning in singular as well as plural form. It has its
origin in languages like Latin, German, and Italian. It was used to show political
situations from ancient times.
The development in the areas like business, science and Government remarkably
increased the use of Statistics. Various functions of statistics are to compare, forecast,
simplify, analyze and interpret data to convey meaning which is helpful to researcher to
large extent. The basic question in use of statistics is that ‘Whether it is a science or
art?’ If both the definitions are studied carefully one can conclude that statistics is both
Art as well as Science.
The purpose of this article is to list out some uses of statistics, to elaborate upon
the misconcepts of the users of statistics and the role of a statistician. It can be said that
misuse of statistics is only, because of lack of technical knowledge, use of unsuitable test
of significance or even unsuitable data, biased opinions and perception of investigators
and not remembering limitations while analyzing and interpreting any data and problem