Descriptive Statistics
Descriptive statistics is a type of statistics where researcher describes the findings of the collected data; it is different from inferential statistics where the researcher includes methods to generalize data findings to the related populations with given level of confidence (Kaur et al. 60). Statistics in general provide a way of describing data that are assimilated by readers hence allowing the research outcome that can be used for evidence thereby narrowing the theory to a knowledge gap, descriptive statistics in particular which are also called explorative statistics is suited for collecting and summarizing quantitative data which can be used for decision making (Kaliyadan and Kulkarni 82). I visited ten convenience stores and/or grocery stores in my area and came up with the bellow summary of data.
| Stores | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Prices | 6 | 5.5 | 6.5 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 6.5 | 6 |
Average cost =
Average =
Average = $ 6.05
Average cost per share in a year assuming the customer buys a packet of cigarette per day will be:
6.05 * 30 *12 = $ 2,178
The averages of cigarette consumption per day, per month or per year is useful to retailers given that they may use search records to know how much they can stock so that they control their stock levels (Kaliyadan and Kulkarni 84). When the retailers have such records they will make sure that they meet demand and they don’t miss out on maximizing their revenues. Consequently, averages also assist health officials and regulators to how much cigarettes that public consume in a month, a week or in a year (Kaur et al. 63). They can then come up with regulations concerning excessive consumption of cigarettes; cigarettes are considered harmful when they are consumed excessively.
It is important to summarize the prices for all the stores and get their averages instead of using prices from one retail outlet. This is so because one retailer’s price may be too high or too low that cannot be used for decision making; the results from one store can be biased hence may be misleading to be used for generalization in decision making,
The figure below is my colleague’s summary of data collected in the chosen ten stores.
| Store | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Prices | 6 | 6 | 6.5 | 5.5 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 6.5 | 5 | 5 |
His average is given by;
Average cost =
Average cost =
Average = 5.85
Average cost per share in a year assuming the customer buys a packet of cigarette per day will be:
5.85 * 30 *12 = $ 2,106
By comparing my averages with my colleague, I realized that my average was slightly above with a difference of (6.05-5.85) which is only $ 0.2. This difference might have been because we collected our data from different stores, but the difference is too small hence both averages can be used to make decisions. I agree that descriptive statistics data can be used by professionals to make decisions since they represent the average that can be use to know the nature of data hence, this can be used for generalization and decision making (Kaliyadan and Kulkarni 85). Furthermore, I agree with my collogue that it is important to summarize data for purposes of generalization and decision making and also that mean, median and standard deviation are very important descriptive statistics for describing data for purposes of generalization and decision making.
Conclusion
Descriptive statistics is a very important aspect of research. However, it is useful to understand characteristics of data to use such statistics appropriately. Descriptive statistics allows for some in-depth analysis such as finding mode, mean, median, variance and standard deviation. Such elements descriptive statistics help in understanding the data sets for making decisions my business people and professionals.
Works Cited
Kaliyadan, Feroze and Kulkarni, Vinay. Types of variables, descriptive statistics, and sample size. Indian Dermatology Online Journal, vol. 10, no. 1, 2019, pp. 82–86. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6362742/.
Kaur, Parampreet, Stoltzfus, Jill, and Yellapu, Vikaz. Descriptive statistics. International Journal of Academic Medicine and Pharmacy, vol. 4, no. 1, 2018, pp. 60-63. http://www.ijam-web.org/article.asp?issn=2455-5568;year=2018;volume=4;issue=1;spage=60;epage=63;aulast=Kaur.