Introduction — Economics STD 11 Commerce — Question

Statistics in plural sense exhibits following characteristics:

1. Aggregate of Facts: A single number does not constitute statistics. Statistics are basically aggregate of facts. For example, if it is stated that there are 1000 persons in our village, then it has little statistical significance.

But if it is stated that there are 300 men, 400 women and 300 children in our village, it makes more statistical sense as this data conveys useful information.

2. Numerically Expressed: Statistics are expressed in terms of numbers. Qualitative expressions like good, bad, young, old, etc do not constitute statistics.

For example, 'sale of firm A has gone up' are not statistics. But ‘sale of firm A has gone up from ₹ 4 lakhs in 2015 to ₹ 5 lakhs in 2016', are statistics.

3. Affected by Multiplicity of Causes: Statistical data are affected to a considerable extent by a number of forces operating together.

For example, rise in price of product may have been due to several causes like reduction in supply, increase in demand, shortage of power, rise in wages, rise in taxes, etc.

4. Reasonable Accuracy: Statistical data must be reasonably accurate because statistical data are to serve as a basis for the field of statistical inquiry.
5. Collected in a Systematic Manner: Statistics should be collected in a systematic and orderly manner. Statistics collected without any system are unreliable and inaccurate. No conclusion can be drawn from statistics collected in a haphazard manner.
6. Pre-determined Purpose: Before collecting the data, the purpose should be decided in advance. Any data collected without any definite purpose, will only be a numerical value and not statistics. If the data are not collected for a pre-determined purpose then their usefulness will be almost negligible.
7. Placed in Relation to Each Other: Only such data will termed as statistics which are mutually related and comparable.

For example, if it is stated than Naman earns ₹ 30,000 and Sangeeta spends ₹ 40,000, then this data are not statistics as they are mutually not related and hence not comparable.
But if it is stated that Naman earns ₹ 30,000 and Sangeeta earns ₹ 50,000 then this data are statistics as they are comparable.