Organizing and Graphing Data

Organizing and Graphing Data

STATISTICS – Lecture no. 7

Jiřı́ Neubauer

Department of Econometrics FEM UO Brno

office 69a, tel. 973 442029
email:[email protected]

10. 11. 2009

Jiřı́ Neubauer Organizing and Graphing Data

 Elementary Statistical Terms
Organizing and Graphing Data
Organizing and Graphing Data

Elementary Statistical Terms

Statistics as a subject provides a body of principles and

methodology for designing the process of data collection,
summarizing and interpreting the data, and drawing conclusions or
generalities.

Jiřı́ Neubauer Organizing and Graphing Data

 Elementary Statistical Terms
Organizing and Graphing Data
Organizing and Graphing Data

Elementary Statistical Terms

statistical observation and data finding

organizing, displaying and describing statistical data sets
making decision, inferences, predictions and forecasts based
on given data sets

Jiřı́ Neubauer Organizing and Graphing Data

 Elementary Statistical Terms
Organizing and Graphing Data
Organizing and Graphing Data

Elementary Statistical Terms

Statistics can be divided into two areas:

descriptive statistics – consists of methods for organizing,
displaying and describing data using tables, graphs, and
summary measures.
inferential statistics – consists of methods that use sample
results to help make decisions or predictions about
a population.

Jiřı́ Neubauer Organizing and Graphing Data

 Elementary Statistical Terms
Organizing and Graphing Data
Organizing and Graphing Data

Elementary Statistical Terms

Definition
Population consists of all elements – individuals, items, or objects
– whose characteristics are being studied. The population that is
being studied is also called target population.
A unit is a single entity (usually a person or an object) whose
characteristics are of interest.

Jiřı́ Neubauer Organizing and Graphing Data

 Elementary Statistical Terms
Organizing and Graphing Data
Organizing and Graphing Data

Elementary Statistical Terms

The population can be

real – all units really exist (students of FEM, Ford made in
1999, daily production of breads , . . . → finite)
hypothetical – is generally defined, but really exists just a
particular part of it (physical or chemical measurements,
. . . → infinite).

Jiřı́ Neubauer Organizing and Graphing Data

 Elementary Statistical Terms
Organizing and Graphing Data
Organizing and Graphing Data

Elementary Statistical Terms

Definition
A sample from a statistical population is a proportion (a subset)
of the population selected for study.

Definition
A survey that includes every member of the population is called
census. The technique of collecting information from a proportion
of the population is called sample survey.

A sample that represents the characteristics of the population as

closely as possible is called a representative sample.

Jiřı́ Neubauer Organizing and Graphing Data

 Elementary Statistical Terms
Organizing and Graphing Data
Organizing and Graphing Data

Elementary Statistical Terms

A sample can be
random – A sample drawn in such a way that each element
of the population has a chance of being selected. If all
samples of the same size selected from a population have the
same chance of being selected, we call it simple random
sampling. Such a sample is called a simple random sample.
non-random – The elements of the sample are not selected
randomly but with a view of obtaining a representative sample.

Jiřı́ Neubauer Organizing and Graphing Data

 Elementary Statistical Terms
Organizing and Graphing Data
Organizing and Graphing Data

Elementary Statistical Terms

Definition
A variable is a characteristic under study that assumes different
values for different elements.
The value of variable for an element is called an observation or
measurement.

Definition
A data set is a collection of observations on one or more variables.
The number of observations we call a sample size and denote
usually n.

Jiřı́ Neubauer Organizing and Graphing Data

 Elementary Statistical Terms
Organizing and Graphing Data
Organizing and Graphing Data

Main Types of Data (variables)

We distinguish two basic types of data (variables)

qualitative or categorical data – A variable that cannot
assume a numerical value but can be classified into two or
more non-numeric categories is called a qualitative or
categorical variable, the data collected on such a variable are
called qualitative data.
qualitative or numerical data – A variable that can be
measured numerically is called a quantitative variable. The
data collected on a quantitative variable are called
quantitative data.
discrete variable – usually integer numbers
continuous variable – real numbers

Jiřı́ Neubauer Organizing and Graphing Data

 Elementary Statistical Terms
Organizing and Graphing Data
Organizing and Graphing Data

Main Types of Data (variables)

qualitative or categorical variables: color of cars (black,

red, green,. . . ), marital status of people (unmarried, married,
divorced, widow–widower), sex (male, female), etc.
qualitative or numerical data – discrete: number of
typographical errors in newspapers, number of persons in
a family, number of cars owned by families, etc.
qualitative or numerical data – continuous: length of
a jump, height, weight, survival time, etc.

Jiřı́ Neubauer Organizing and Graphing Data

 Elementary Statistical Terms
Organizing and Graphing Data
Organizing and Graphing Data

Organizing and Graphing Data – Categorical Data

Data are usually organized in the form of a frequency table shows

the counts (frequencies) of individual categories. Our
understanding of the data is further enhanced by calculation of
proportion (relative frequency) of observations in each category.

Frequency in the category

Relative frequency = .
Total number of observations

Jiřı́ Neubauer Organizing and Graphing Data

 Elementary Statistical Terms
Organizing and Graphing Data
Organizing and Graphing Data

Organizing and Graphing Data – Categorical Data

A campus press polled a sample of 280 undergraduate students in

the order study student attitude towards a proposed change in the
dormitory regulations. Each student was to respond as support,
oppose, or neutral in regard to the issue. The numbers were 152
support, 77 neutral, and 51 opposed. Tabulate the results and
calculate the relative frequencies for the three response categories.

Jiřı́ Neubauer Organizing and Graphing Data

 Elementary Statistical Terms
Organizing and Graphing Data
Organizing and Graphing Data

Organizing and Graphing Data – Categorical Data

Responses Frequency ni Relative frequency pi

152 .
Support 152 280 = 0.543
51 .
Oppose 51 280 = 0.182
77
Neutral 77 280 = 0.275
Total 280 1
Table: Summary results of an opinion poll

Jiřı́ Neubauer Organizing and Graphing Data

 Elementary Statistical Terms
Organizing and Graphing Data
Organizing and Graphing Data

Organizing and Graphing Data – Categorical Data

Figure: Pie chart

Jiřı́ Neubauer Organizing and Graphing Data

 Elementary Statistical Terms
Organizing and Graphing Data
Organizing and Graphing Data

Organizing and Graphing Data – Categorical Data

Graduate students in a counseling course were asked to choose one

of their personal habits that needed improvement. In order to
reduce the effect of this habit, they were asked to first gather data
on the frequency of occurrence and the circumstances. One
student collected the following frequency data on fingernail biting
over a two-week period.

Jiřı́ Neubauer Organizing and Graphing Data

 Elementary Statistical Terms
Organizing and Graphing Data
Organizing and Graphing Data

Organizing and Graphing Data – Categorical Data

Activity Frequency
Watching TV 58
Reading newspaper 21
Talking on phone 14
Driving a car 7
Grocery shopping 3
Other 12
Table: Frequency table

Jiřı́ Neubauer Organizing and Graphing Data

 Elementary Statistical Terms
Organizing and Graphing Data
Organizing and Graphing Data

Organizing and Graphing Data – Categorical Data

Figure: Pareto diagram

Jiřı́ Neubauer Organizing and Graphing Data

 Elementary Statistical Terms
Organizing and Graphing Data
Organizing and Graphing Data

Organizing and Graphing Data – Quantitative Data

Small sample – if the sample size is small (n < 30)

Sort the data in ascending order: x(1) ≤ x(2) ≤ · · · ≤ x(n)
Graph the data
Calculate measures (see next lecture)

Jiřı́ Neubauer Organizing and Graphing Data

 Elementary Statistical Terms
Organizing and Graphing Data
Organizing and Graphing Data

Organizing and Graphing Data – Quantitative Data

Example. We measured the quantity of fat in 15 sample of milk

(in g/l):

14.85 14.68 15.27 14.77 14.83 14,95 15,08 15,02

15.07 14.98 15.15 15.49 14.83 14.95 14.78

Figure: The quantity of fat

Jiřı́ Neubauer Organizing and Graphing Data

 Elementary Statistical Terms
Organizing and Graphing Data
Organizing and Graphing Data

Organizing and Graphing Data – Quantitative Data

Discrete data – n > 30 with small number of variants

Frequency table (ni , pi , Ni , Fi , i = 1, 2, . . . , k, k is the number
of variants)
Graph the data – line plot, histogram, box plot, empirical
distribution function
Calculate measures (see next lecture)

Jiřı́ Neubauer Organizing and Graphing Data

 Elementary Statistical Terms
Organizing and Graphing Data
Organizing and Graphing Data

Organizing and Graphing Data – Quantitative Data

Example. We have data set containing the heights of 50 randomly

chosen 15 months old boys (in cm):

83 85 81 82 84 82 79 84 80 81
82 82 80 82 80 82 83 84 82 79
83 82 83 82 82 82 81 80 82 82
83 80 82 85 81 83 81 81 83 82
81 85 83 79 81 81 81 84 81 82

Create a frequency table and plot the data.

Jiřı́ Neubauer Organizing and Graphing Data

 Elementary Statistical Terms
Organizing and Graphing Data
Organizing and Graphing Data

Organizing and Graphing Data – Quantitative Data

Height Freq. Rel. freq. Cumulative Rel. cum.

xi ni pi frequency Ni frequency Fi
79 3 0.06 3 0.06
80 5 0.10 8 0.16
81 11 0.22 19 0.38
82 16 0.32 35 0.70
83 8 0.16 43 0.86
84 4 0.08 47 0.94
85 3 0.06 50 1.00
Σ 50 1.00 — —
Table: Frequency table – height of 15 months old boys

Jiřı́ Neubauer Organizing and Graphing Data

 Elementary Statistical Terms
Organizing and Graphing Data
Organizing and Graphing Data

Organizing and Graphing Data – Quantitative Data

Figure: Frequency distribution

Jiřı́ Neubauer Organizing and Graphing Data

 Elementary Statistical Terms
Organizing and Graphing Data
Organizing and Graphing Data

Organizing and Graphing Data – Quantitative Data

Continuous data – n > 30, also possible to use for description of

discrete data set with large number of variants
Construct classes (the number, the width and the begin)
Frequency table
Graph the data – histogram, box plot, empirical distribution
function
Calculate measures (see next lecture)

Jiřı́ Neubauer Organizing and Graphing Data

 Elementary Statistical Terms
Organizing and Graphing Data
Organizing and Graphing Data

Organizing and Graphing Data – Quantitative Data

Calculation of classes
find n, xmin , xmax and calculate the range R = xmax − xmin
the number of classes k we can determinate by following rules
Sturges’ rule k ≈ 1 + 3.32
√ log n
Yule’s pravidlo k√≈ 2.5 4 n
other rules k ≈ n, k ≈ 5 log n
calculation of class width h ≈ R/k or h ≈ from 0.08 · R till
0.12 · R

Jiřı́ Neubauer Organizing and Graphing Data

 Elementary Statistical Terms
Organizing and Graphing Data
Organizing and Graphing Data

Organizing and Graphing Data – Quantitative Data

Example. We have data set containing the quantity of the dust

particles (in µg/m3 ):
1.23 1.10 1.54 1.34 1.06 1.09 1.41 1.48 1.52 1.37 1.37 1.63
1.51 1.53 1.31 1.23 1.31 1.27 1.17 1.27 1.34 1.27 1.09 1.01
1.41 1.22 1.27 1.37 1.14 1.22 1.43 1.40 1.41 1.51 1.51 1.47
1.14 1.34 1.16 1.51 1.58 1.33 1.31 1.04 1.58 1.12 1.19 1.17
1.47 1.24 1.45 1.29 1.17 1.63 1.39 1.02 1.38 1.39 1.43 1.28

Create a frequency table and plot the data.

Jiřı́ Neubauer Organizing and Graphing Data

 Elementary Statistical Terms
Organizing and Graphing Data
Organizing and Graphing Data

Organizing and Graphing Data – Quantitative Data

Class Middle Freq. Rel. freq. Cum. Rel. cum.

xj nj pj freq. Nj Freq. Fj
(1.00; 1.10i 1.05 7 0.177 7 0.117
(1.10; 1.20i 1.15 8 0.133 15 0.250
(1.20; 1.30i 1.25 11 0.183 26 0.433
(1.30; 1.40i 1.35 14 0.233 40 0.667
(1.40; 1.50i 1.45 9 0.150 49 0.817
(1.50; 1.60i 1.55 9 0.150 58 0.967
(1.60; 1.70i 1.65 2 0.033 60 1.000
Σ — 60 1 — —
3
Table: Frequency table – quantity of dust particles in µg/m

Jiřı́ Neubauer Organizing and Graphing Data

 Elementary Statistical Terms
Organizing and Graphing Data
Organizing and Graphing Data

Organizing and Graphing Data – Quantitative Data

Figure: Frequency distribution – histograms

Jiřı́ Neubauer Organizing and Graphing Data

 Elementary Statistical Terms
Organizing and Graphing Data
Organizing and Graphing Data

Organizing and Graphing Data – Quantitative Data

The frequency distribution is also possible to describe by empirical

distribution function, which is defined as
number of elements in the sample ≤ x N(xi ≤ x)
Fn (x) = = .
n n

Jiřı́ Neubauer Organizing and Graphing Data

 Elementary Statistical Terms
Organizing and Graphing Data
Organizing and Graphing Data

Organizing and Graphing Data – Quantitative Data

Figure: Empirical distribution function

Jiřı́ Neubauer Organizing and Graphing Data