**Author details**

Since the application of statistics is very wide, different and multidisciplinary fields have evolved over time. These are some examples of application of statistics to other disciplines: Astrostatistics, Biostatistics, Econometrics, Business Analytics, Environmental Statistics, Statistical Mechanics, Statistical Physics, Actuarial Science, and so on. For example, Astrostatistics is the field which applies statistics to astronomical data which indicate that astrostatistics is a combination of astrophysics and statistical analysis. Biostatistics is the application of statistics to a wide range of topics in biology. Econometrics is the field where statistical tools are used to explain economic theories, and business analytics is the branch in which the statistical analysis applied to understanding of business performance and opportunities. Statistical physics is the branch which uses statistical methods to answer physical problems, and actuarial science is the field that uses statistical methods to analyze the risk

To underline the importance of statistics in our daily life, we can look at the following examples: (i) *weather forecasting*: most of the people watch weather news and make decisions according to this news. Ineluctably, there are statistical models behind these forecasts that predict the weather conditions. (ii) *Insurance*: most of the people have some kind of insurance, such as medical, home, car, etc. Most of the insurance companies use statistical models to calculate the risk of giving insurance. (iii) *Medical field*: before any drugs prescribed, scientist should demonstrate a statistically valid rate of effectiveness. (iv) *Financial markets*: traders and businessmen use data and statistics to invest money. Of course one can easily extend the

Among many others, some benefits of statistical analysis can be summarized as follows. First of all, it helps to present and compare the facts from data in a definite form. In other words, expressing results and/or conclusions in numbers develops a necessary and common form of communication for scientists, policy makers, and many others. Secondly, it helps us to formalize our thinking. In particular, statistical methods are used in formulating/testing the hypotheses or a new theory. By using these methods, we can determine the likelihood that a hypothesis should be either rejected or not. Thirdly, statistical methods help us to draw conclusions about populations based only on sample results. Last but not least, statistics is very important especially when it comes to the conclusion of the research, and in this sense

Among many benefits, of course, there are also some misuses of statistics. Main examples of misuses among others are overgeneralization, biased samples, insufficient sample size, and spurious correlations. All these mistakes may give us misleading conclusions. Let me just give some intuition about these misuses. (i) *Overgeneralization*: the results from one population may not be valid to another population. For example, a result/conclusion which is valid for one age group may not be true for other age groups. Hence, one should be careful about his conclusions when it comes to generalization. (ii) *Biased samples*: a random sample should be used, since a non-random sample can bias the results from the beginning. Making an argument or claim about an entire population based on a sample that is not representative of the whole is an important example of misuse of statistics. If one is analyzing whether or not the school lunch program provided enough food for students and conducts a survey only with

insurance and some other financial issues.

4 Statistics - Growing Data Sets and Growing Demand for Statistics

number of examples in which we use statistics in our daily life.

statistical methods allow us for forecasting and policy making.

Türkmen Göksel

Address all correspondence to: turkmen.goksel@ankara.edu.tr

Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey
