We want to describe the difference between descriptive and inferential statistics. Let's do this using an example. Suppose that we would like to determine whether teenagers are interested in ecology. To do this, we survey 100 people from our school and the results are as follows.
We can see that more than half of our sample members are interested in ecology. This part of analysis is descriptive statistics because it involves describing a sample of data. Based on our sample, we could draw a conclusion that more than half of teenagers are interested in ecology.
Sample Characteristic ⇓ Conclusion About Population
Making hypothesis and drawing inferences about the population are part of inferential statistics. Therefore, both descriptive and inferential statistics are branches of statistics, but they are using different tools.
Descriptive Statistics
Inferential Statistics
Involves organizing, describing, and displaying samples of data.
Involves making hypothesis and drawing conclusions about the population.
Allows us to get to know our data better.
Allows us to check our hypothesis and make inferences for real-life problems.
