<statistics, mathematics> The practice, study or result of the application of mathematical functions to collections of data in order to summarise or extrapolate that data.

The subject of statistics can be divided into descriptive statistics - describing data, and analytical statistics - drawing conclusions from data.

(01 Mar 1997)

The science and art of collecting, summarizing, and analyzing data that are subject to random variation. The term is also applied to the data themselves and to the summarization of the data.

(12 Dec 1998)