statistics for a research paper

Statistics for Research Students

(2 reviews)

Erich C Fein, Toowoomba, Australia

John Gilmour, Toowoomba, Australia

Tayna Machin, Toowoomba, Australia

Liam Hendry, Toowoomba, Australia

Copyright Year: 2022

ISBN 13: 9780645326109

Publisher: University of Southern Queensland

Language: English

Formats Available

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Learn more about reviews.

Reviewed by Sojib Bin Zaman, Assistant Professor, James Madison University on 3/18/24

From exploring data in Chapter One to learning advanced methodologies such as moderation and mediation in Chapter Seven, the reader is guided through the entire process of statistical methodology. With each chapter covering a different statistical... read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

From exploring data in Chapter One to learning advanced methodologies such as moderation and mediation in Chapter Seven, the reader is guided through the entire process of statistical methodology. With each chapter covering a different statistical technique and methodology, students gain a comprehensive understanding of statistical research techniques.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

During my review of the textbook, I did not find any notable errors or omissions. In my opinion, the material was comprehensive, resulting in an enjoyable learning experience.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

A majority of the textbook's content is aligned with current trends, advancements, and enduring principles in the field of statistics. Several emerging methodologies and technologies are incorporated into this textbook to enhance students' statistical knowledge. It will be a valuable resource in the long run if students and researchers can properly utilize this textbook.

Clarity rating: 5

A clear explanation of complex statistical concepts such as moderation and mediation is provided in the writing style. Examples and problem sets are provided in the textbook in a comprehensive and well-explained manner.

Consistency rating: 5

Each chapter maintains consistent formatting and language, with resources organized consistently. Headings and subheadings worked well.

Modularity rating: 5

The textbook is well-structured, featuring cohesive chapters that flow smoothly from one to another. It is carefully crafted with a focus on defining terms clearly, facilitating understanding, and ensuring logical flow.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

From basic to advanced concepts, this book provides clarity of progression, logical arranging of sections and chapters, and effective headings and subheadings that guide readers. Further, the organization provides students with a lot of information on complex statistical methodologies.

Interface rating: 5

The available formats included PDFs, online access, and e-books. The e-book interface was particularly appealing to me, as it provided seamless navigation and viewing of content without compromising usability.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

I found no significant errors in this document, and the overall quality of the writing was commendable. There was a high level of clarity and coherence in the text, which contributed to a positive reading experience.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The content of the book, as well as its accompanying examples, demonstrates a dedication to inclusivity by taking into account cultural diversity and a variety of perspectives. Furthermore, the material actively promotes cultural diversity, which enables readers to develop a deeper understanding of various cultural contexts and experiences.

In summary, this textbook provides a comprehensive resource tailored for advanced statistics courses, characterized by meticulous organization and practical supplementary materials. This book also provides valuable insights into the interpretation of computer output that enhance a greater understanding of each concept presented.

Reviewed by Zhuanzhuan Ma, Assistant Professor, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley on 3/7/24

The textbook covers all necessary areas and topics for students who want to conduct research in statistics. It includes foundational concepts, application methods, and advanced statistical techniques relevant to research methodologies. read more

The textbook covers all necessary areas and topics for students who want to conduct research in statistics. It includes foundational concepts, application methods, and advanced statistical techniques relevant to research methodologies.

The textbook presents statistical methods and data accurately, with up-to-date statistical practices and examples.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

The textbook's content is relevant to current research practices. The book includes contemporary examples and case studies that are currently prevalent in research communities. One small drawback is that the textbook did not include the example code for conduct data analysis.

The textbook break down complex statistical methods into understandable segments. All the concepts are clearly explained. Authors used diagrams, examples, and all kinds of explanations to facilitate learning for students with varying levels of background knowledge.

The terminology, framework, and presentation style (e.g. concepts, methodologies, and examples) seem consistent throughout the book.

The textbook is well organized that each chapter and section can be used independently without losing the context necessary for understanding. Also, the modular structure allows instructors and students to adapt the materials for different study plans.

The textbook is well-organized and progresses from basic concepts to more complex methods, making it easier for students to follow along. There is a logical flow of the content.

The digital format of the textbook has an interface that includes the design, layout, and navigational features. It is easier to use for readers.

The quality of writing is very high. The well-written texts help both instructors and students to follow the ideas clearly.

The textbook does not perpetuate stereotypes or biases and are inclusive in their examples, language, and perspectives.

Table of Contents

• Acknowledgement of Country
• Accessibility Information
• About the Authors
• Introduction
• I. Chapter One - Exploring Your Data
• II. Chapter Two - Test Statistics, p Values, Confidence Intervals and Effect Sizes
• III. Chapter Three- Comparing Two Group Means
• IV. Chapter Four - Comparing Associations Between Two Variables
• V. Chapter Five- Comparing Associations Between Multiple Variables
• VI. Chapter Six- Comparing Three or More Group Means
• VII. Chapter Seven- Moderation and Mediation Analyses
• VIII. Chapter Eight- Factor Analysis and Scale Reliability
• IX. Chapter Nine- Nonparametric Statistics

Ancillary Material

About the book.

This book aims to help you understand and navigate statistical concepts and the main types of statistical analyses essential for research students. 

About the Contributors

Dr Erich C. Fein  is an Associate Professor at the University of Southern Queensland. He received substantial training in research methods and statistics during his PhD program at Ohio State University.  He currently teaches four courses in research methods and statistics.  His research involves leadership, occupational health, and motivation, as well as issues related to research methods such as the following article: “ Safeguarding Access and Safeguarding Meaning as Strategies for Achieving Confidentiality .”  Click here to link to his  Google Scholar  profile.

Dr John Gilmour  is a Lecturer at the University of Southern Queensland and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Queensland, His research focuses on the locational and temporal analyses of crime, and the evaluation of police training and procedures. John has worked across many different sectors including PTSD, social media, criminology, and medicine.

Dr Tanya Machin  is a Senior Lecturer and Associate Dean at the University of Southern Queensland. Her research focuses on social media and technology across the lifespan. Tanya has co-taught Honours research methods with Erich, and is also interested in ethics and qualitative research methods. Tanya has worked across many different sectors including primary schools, financial services, and mental health.

Dr Liam Hendry  is a Lecturer at the University of Southern Queensland. His research interests focus on long-term and short-term memory, measurement of human memory, attention, learning & diverse aspects of cognitive psychology.

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Finding Statistics and Data for Research Papers

• Writing Research Papers
• Writing Essays
• English Grammar
• M.Ed., Education Administration, University of Georgia
• B.A., History, Armstrong State University

Reports are always more interesting and convincing if they contain data or statistics. Some research numbers and results can add a really surprising or interesting twist to your papers. This list provides some good places to start if you want to support your opinions with some research data.

Tips for Using Statistics

Remember that data plays an important role as evidence to support your thesis, but you should also be cautious about relying too heavily on dry statistics and facts. Your paper should contain a good mixture of evidence from a variety of sources, as well as well-constructed discussion points.

Be sure that you understand the contest of statistics you use. If you are comparing internet usage among teens in China, India, and the United States, for example, you should be sure to explore the many economic and political factors as part of your discussion.

If you are planning a speech, you will need to use statistics wisely and sparingly. Dramatic statistics are more impactful and easier for your audience to understand in a verbal delivery. Too many statistics will put your audience to sleep.

Research Studies: Public Agenda

This great site provides insight into what the public really thinks about a wide spectrum of topics. Examples are: what teachers think about teaching; America's views on crime and punishment; how minority populations feel about educational opportunities; what American teenagers really think about their schools; public attitudes about global warming; and much, much more! The site provides free access to press releases on dozens of research studies, so you don't have to browse through dry percentages.

Health: National Center for Health Statistics

Statistics on cigarette smoking, birth control use, child care, working parents, marriage probability, insurance, physical activity, causes of injury, and much more! This site would be helpful if you are writing about a controversial topic.

Social Sciences: U.S. Census Bureau

You'll find information on income, employment, poverty , relationships, ethnicity, ancestry, population, houses and living conditions. This site would be helpful if you are looking for helpful information for your social science projects.

Economics: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis

Writing a paper for your political science or economics class? Read the White House briefing room statistics on employment, income, money, prices, production, output, and transportation.

Crime: U.S. Department of Justice

Find crime trends, trends on investigations, gun use, convictions, juvenile justice , inmate violence, and more. This site provides a gold mine of interesting information for many of your projects!

Education: National Center for Education Statistics

Find statistics provided by the "federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education." Topics include dropout rates, performance in mathematic, school performances, literacy levels, postsecondary choices, and early childhood education .

Geopolitics: GeoHive

This site provides "geopolitical data, statistics on the human population, Earth and more." Find interesting facts about the countries of the world, like the largest cities, biggest airports, historical populations, capitals, growth statistics, and natural phenomena .

World Religion: Adherents

Curious about religions of the world? This site has information regarding religious movements and their countries of origin, predominant religions, biggest churches, affiliations of famous people, holy places, movies about religion, religion by location—it's all there.

Internet Usage: A Nation Online

Internet usage reports from the U.S. government , with information about online behavior, entertainment, the age of users, transactions, time online, the effect of geography, usage by state, and much more.

• How Long Should Your Web Page Be?
• Ethos, Logos, Pathos for Persuasion
• Finding Trustworthy Sources
• 5 Steps to Writing a Position Paper
• What Is Expository Writing?
• Topic In Composition and Speech
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• Data Sources For Sociological Research
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• How to Make a College Paper Longer
• 10 Steps for Finding Your Family Tree Online
• How to Create a Free Video Blog
• How to Determine a Reliable Source on the Internet
• What Is a Blog Sidebar?

Effective Use of Statistics in Research – Methods and Tools for Data Analysis

Remember that impending feeling you get when you are asked to analyze your data! Now that you have all the required raw data, you need to statistically prove your hypothesis. Representing your numerical data as part of statistics in research will also help in breaking the stereotype of being a biology student who can’t do math.

Statistical methods are essential for scientific research. In fact, statistical methods dominate the scientific research as they include planning, designing, collecting data, analyzing, drawing meaningful interpretation and reporting of research findings. Furthermore, the results acquired from research project are meaningless raw data unless analyzed with statistical tools. Therefore, determining statistics in research is of utmost necessity to justify research findings. In this article, we will discuss how using statistical methods for biology could help draw meaningful conclusion to analyze biological studies.

Table of Contents

Role of Statistics in Biological Research

Statistics is a branch of science that deals with collection, organization and analysis of data from the sample to the whole population. Moreover, it aids in designing a study more meticulously and also give a logical reasoning in concluding the hypothesis. Furthermore, biology study focuses on study of living organisms and their complex living pathways, which are very dynamic and cannot be explained with logical reasoning. However, statistics is more complex a field of study that defines and explains study patterns based on the sample sizes used. To be precise, statistics provides a trend in the conducted study.

Biological researchers often disregard the use of statistics in their research planning, and mainly use statistical tools at the end of their experiment. Therefore, giving rise to a complicated set of results which are not easily analyzed from statistical tools in research. Statistics in research can help a researcher approach the study in a stepwise manner, wherein the statistical analysis in research follows –

1. Establishing a Sample Size

Usually, a biological experiment starts with choosing samples and selecting the right number of repetitive experiments. Statistics in research deals with basics in statistics that provides statistical randomness and law of using large samples. Statistics teaches how choosing a sample size from a random large pool of sample helps extrapolate statistical findings and reduce experimental bias and errors.

2. Testing of Hypothesis

When conducting a statistical study with large sample pool, biological researchers must make sure that a conclusion is statistically significant. To achieve this, a researcher must create a hypothesis before examining the distribution of data. Furthermore, statistics in research helps interpret the data clustered near the mean of distributed data or spread across the distribution. These trends help analyze the sample and signify the hypothesis.

3. Data Interpretation Through Analysis

When dealing with large data, statistics in research assist in data analysis. This helps researchers to draw an effective conclusion from their experiment and observations. Concluding the study manually or from visual observation may give erroneous results; therefore, thorough statistical analysis will take into consideration all the other statistical measures and variance in the sample to provide a detailed interpretation of the data. Therefore, researchers produce a detailed and important data to support the conclusion.

Types of Statistical Research Methods That Aid in Data Analysis

Statistical analysis is the process of analyzing samples of data into patterns or trends that help researchers anticipate situations and make appropriate research conclusions. Based on the type of data, statistical analyses are of the following type:

1. Descriptive Analysis

The descriptive statistical analysis allows organizing and summarizing the large data into graphs and tables . Descriptive analysis involves various processes such as tabulation, measure of central tendency, measure of dispersion or variance, skewness measurements etc.

2. Inferential Analysis

The inferential statistical analysis allows to extrapolate the data acquired from a small sample size to the complete population. This analysis helps draw conclusions and make decisions about the whole population on the basis of sample data. It is a highly recommended statistical method for research projects that work with smaller sample size and meaning to extrapolate conclusion for large population.

3. Predictive Analysis

Predictive analysis is used to make a prediction of future events. This analysis is approached by marketing companies, insurance organizations, online service providers, data-driven marketing, and financial corporations.

4. Prescriptive Analysis

Prescriptive analysis examines data to find out what can be done next. It is widely used in business analysis for finding out the best possible outcome for a situation. It is nearly related to descriptive and predictive analysis. However, prescriptive analysis deals with giving appropriate suggestions among the available preferences.

5. Exploratory Data Analysis

EDA is generally the first step of the data analysis process that is conducted before performing any other statistical analysis technique. It completely focuses on analyzing patterns in the data to recognize potential relationships. EDA is used to discover unknown associations within data, inspect missing data from collected data and obtain maximum insights.

6. Causal Analysis

Causal analysis assists in understanding and determining the reasons behind “why” things happen in a certain way, as they appear. This analysis helps identify root cause of failures or simply find the basic reason why something could happen. For example, causal analysis is used to understand what will happen to the provided variable if another variable changes.

7. Mechanistic Analysis

This is a least common type of statistical analysis. The mechanistic analysis is used in the process of big data analytics and biological science. It uses the concept of understanding individual changes in variables that cause changes in other variables correspondingly while excluding external influences.

Important Statistical Tools In Research

Researchers in the biological field find statistical analysis in research as the scariest aspect of completing research. However, statistical tools in research can help researchers understand what to do with data and how to interpret the results, making this process as easy as possible.

1. Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS)

It is a widely used software package for human behavior research. SPSS can compile descriptive statistics, as well as graphical depictions of result. Moreover, it includes the option to create scripts that automate analysis or carry out more advanced statistical processing.

2. R Foundation for Statistical Computing

This software package is used among human behavior research and other fields. R is a powerful tool and has a steep learning curve. However, it requires a certain level of coding. Furthermore, it comes with an active community that is engaged in building and enhancing the software and the associated plugins.

3. MATLAB (The Mathworks)

It is an analytical platform and a programming language. Researchers and engineers use this software and create their own code and help answer their research question. While MatLab can be a difficult tool to use for novices, it offers flexibility in terms of what the researcher needs.

4. Microsoft Excel

Not the best solution for statistical analysis in research, but MS Excel offers wide variety of tools for data visualization and simple statistics. It is easy to generate summary and customizable graphs and figures. MS Excel is the most accessible option for those wanting to start with statistics.

5. Statistical Analysis Software (SAS)

It is a statistical platform used in business, healthcare, and human behavior research alike. It can carry out advanced analyzes and produce publication-worthy figures, tables and charts .

6. GraphPad Prism

It is a premium software that is primarily used among biology researchers. But, it offers a range of variety to be used in various other fields. Similar to SPSS, GraphPad gives scripting option to automate analyses to carry out complex statistical calculations.

This software offers basic as well as advanced statistical tools for data analysis. However, similar to GraphPad and SPSS, minitab needs command over coding and can offer automated analyses.

Use of Statistical Tools In Research and Data Analysis

Statistical tools manage the large data. Many biological studies use large data to analyze the trends and patterns in studies. Therefore, using statistical tools becomes essential, as they manage the large data sets, making data processing more convenient.

Following these steps will help biological researchers to showcase the statistics in research in detail, and develop accurate hypothesis and use correct tools for it.

There are a range of statistical tools in research which can help researchers manage their research data and improve the outcome of their research by better interpretation of data. You could use statistics in research by understanding the research question, knowledge of statistics and your personal experience in coding.

Have you faced challenges while using statistics in research? How did you manage it? Did you use any of the statistical tools to help you with your research data? Do write to us or comment below!

Frequently Asked Questions

Statistics in research can help a researcher approach the study in a stepwise manner: 1. Establishing a sample size 2. Testing of hypothesis 3. Data interpretation through analysis

Statistical methods are essential for scientific research. In fact, statistical methods dominate the scientific research as they include planning, designing, collecting data, analyzing, drawing meaningful interpretation and reporting of research findings. Furthermore, the results acquired from research project are meaningless raw data unless analyzed with statistical tools. Therefore, determining statistics in research is of utmost necessity to justify research findings.

Statistical tools in research can help researchers understand what to do with data and how to interpret the results, making this process as easy as possible. They can manage large data sets, making data processing more convenient. A great number of tools are available to carry out statistical analysis of data like SPSS, SAS (Statistical Analysis Software), and Minitab.

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Holistic but delineating. A very good read.

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Statistics Made Easy

The Importance of Statistics in Research (With Examples)

The field of statistics is concerned with collecting, analyzing, interpreting, and presenting data.

In the field of research, statistics is important for the following reasons:

Reason 1 : Statistics allows researchers to design studies such that the findings from the studies can be extrapolated to a larger population.

Reason 2 : Statistics allows researchers to perform hypothesis tests to determine if some claim about a new drug, new procedure, new manufacturing method, etc. is true.

Reason 3 : Statistics allows researchers to create confidence intervals to capture uncertainty around population estimates.

In the rest of this article, we elaborate on each of these reasons.

Reason 1: Statistics Allows Researchers to Design Studies

Researchers are often interested in answering questions about populations like:

• What is the average weight of a certain species of bird?
• What is the average height of a certain species of plant?
• What percentage of citizens in a certain city support a certain law?

One way to answer these questions is to go around and collect data on every single individual in the population of interest.

However, this is typically too costly and time-consuming which is why researchers instead take a  sample  of the population and use the data from the sample to draw conclusions about the population as a whole.

There are many different methods researchers can potentially use to obtain individuals to be in a sample. These are known as  sampling methods .

There are two classes of sampling methods:

• Probability sampling methods : Every member in a population has an equal probability of being selected to be in the sample.
• Non-probability sampling methods : Not every member in a population has an equal probability of being selected to be in the sample.

By using probability sampling methods, researchers can maximize the chances that they obtain a sample that is representative of the overall population.

This allows researchers to extrapolate the findings from the sample to the overall population.

Read more about the two classes of sampling methods here .

Reason 2: Statistics Allows Researchers to Perform Hypothesis Tests

Another way that statistics is used in research is in the form of hypothesis tests .

These are tests that researchers can use to determine if there is a statistical significance between different medical procedures or treatments.

For example, suppose a scientist believes that a new drug is able to reduce blood pressure in obese patients. To test this, he measures the blood pressure of 30 patients before and after using the new drug for one month.

He then performs a paired samples t- test using the following hypotheses:

• H 0 : μ after = μ before (the mean blood pressure is the same before and after using the drug)
• H A : μ after < μ before (the mean blood pressure is less after using the drug)

If the p-value of the test is less than some significance level (e.g. α = .05), then he can reject the null hypothesis and conclude that the new drug leads to reduced blood pressure.

Note : This is just one example of a hypothesis test that is used in research. Other common tests include a one sample t-test , two sample t-test , one-way ANOVA , and two-way ANOVA .

Reason 3: Statistics Allows Researchers to Create Confidence Intervals

Another way that statistics is used in research is in the form of confidence intervals .

A confidence interval is a range of values that is likely to contain a population parameter with a certain level of confidence.

For example, suppose researchers are interested in estimating the mean weight of a certain species of turtle.

Instead of going around and weighing every single turtle in the population, researchers may instead take a simple random sample of turtles with the following information:

• Sample size  n = 25
• Sample mean weight  x  = 300
• Sample standard deviation  s = 18.5

Using the confidence interval for a mean formula , researchers may then construct the following 95% confidence interval:

95% Confidence Interval:  300 +/-  1.96*(18.5/√ 25 ) =  [292.75, 307.25]

The researchers would then claim that they’re 95% confident that the true mean weight for this population of turtles is between 292.75 pounds and 307.25 pounds.

Additional Resources

The following articles explain the importance of statistics in other fields:

The Importance of Statistics in Healthcare The Importance of Statistics in Nursing The Importance of Statistics in Business The Importance of Statistics in Economics The Importance of Statistics in Education

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Hey there. My name is Zach Bobbitt. I have a Masters of Science degree in Applied Statistics and I’ve worked on machine learning algorithms for professional businesses in both healthcare and retail. I’m passionate about statistics, machine learning, and data visualization and I created Statology to be a resource for both students and teachers alike.  My goal with this site is to help you learn statistics through using simple terms, plenty of real-world examples, and helpful illustrations.

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How to Find Statistics for a Research Paper

Last Updated: March 10, 2024 References

This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Jennifer Mueller, JD . Jennifer Mueller is a wikiHow Content Creator. She specializes in reviewing, fact-checking, and evaluating wikiHow's content to ensure thoroughness and accuracy. Jennifer holds a JD from Indiana University Maurer School of Law in 2006. There are 8 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 24,724 times.

When you're writing a research paper, particularly in social sciences such as political science or sociology, statistics can help you back up your conclusions with solid data. You typically can find relevant statistics using online sources. However, it's important to accurately assess the reliability of the source. You also need to understand whether the statistics you've found strengthen or undermine your arguments or conclusions before you incorporate them into your writing. [1] X Research source [2] X Trustworthy Source University of North Carolina Writing Center UNC's on-campus and online instructional service that provides assistance to students, faculty, and others during the writing process Go to source

Identifying the Data You Need

• For example, if you're writing a research paper for a sociology class on the effect of crime in inner cities, you may want to make the point that high school graduation rates decrease as the rate of violent crime increases.
• To support that point, you would need data about high school graduation rates in specific inner cities, as well as violent crime rates in the same areas.
• From that data, you would want to find statistics that show the trends in those two rates. Then you can compare those statistics to reach a correlation that would (potentially) support your point.

• Background research also can clue you in to words or phrases that are commonly used by academics, researchers, and statisticians examining the same issues you're discussing in your research paper.
• A basic familiarity with your topic can help you identify additional statistics that you might not have thought of before.
• For example, in reading about the effect of violent crime in inner cities, you may find an article discussing how children coming from high-crime neighborhoods have higher rates of PTSD than children who grow up in peaceful suburbs.
• The issue of PTSD is something you potentially could weave into your research paper, although you'd have to do more digging into the source of the statistics themselves.
• Keep in mind when you're reading on background, this isn't necessarily limited to material that you might use as a source for your research paper. You're just trying to familiarize yourself with the subject generally.

• With a descriptive statistic, those who collected the data got information for every person included in a specific, limited group.
• "Only 2 percent of the students in McKinley High School's senior class have red hair" is an example of a descriptive statistic. All the students in the senior class have been accounted for, and the statistic describes only that group.
• However, if the statisticians used the county high school's senior class as a representative sample of the county as a whole, the result would be an inferential statistic.
• The inferential version would be phrased "According to our study, approximately 2 percent of the people in McKinley County have red hair." The statisticians didn't check the hair color of every person who lived in the county.

• Finding the best key words can be an art form. Using what you learned from your background research, try to use words academics or other researchers in the field use when discussing your topic.
• You not only want to search for specific words, but also synonyms for those words. You also might search for both broader categories and narrower examples of related phenomena.
• For example, "violent crime" is a broad category that may include crimes such as assault, rape, and murder. You may not be able to find statistics that specifically track violent crime generally, but you should be able to find statistics on the murder rate in a given area.
• If you're looking for statistics related to a particular geographic area, you'll need to be flexible there as well. For example, if you can't find statistics that relate solely to a particular neighborhood, you may want to expand outward to the city or even the county.

• While you can run a general internet search using your key words to potentially find statistics you can use in your research paper, knowing specific sources can help you find reliable statistics more quickly.
• For example, if you're looking for statistics related to various demographics in the United States, the U.S. government has many statistics available at www.usa.gov/statistics.
• You also can check the U.S. Census Bureau's website to retrieve census statistics and data.
• The NationMaster website collects data from the CIA World Factbook and other sources to create a wealth of statistics comparing different countries on a number of measures.

Evaluating Sources

• Find out who was responsible for collecting the data, and why. If the organization or group behind the data collection and creation of the statistics has an ideological or political mission, their statistics may be suspect.
• Essentially, if someone is creating statistics to support a particular position or prove their arguments, you cannot trust those statistics. There are many ways raw data can be manipulated to show trends or correlations that don't necessarily reflect reality.
• Government sources typically are highly reliable, as are most university studies. However, even with university studies you want to see if the study was funded in whole or in part by a group or organization with an ideological or political motivation or bias.

• To explore the background adequately, use the journalistic standard of the "5 w's" – who, what, when, where, and why.
• This means you'll want to find out who carried out the study (or, in the case of a poll, who asked the questions), what questions were asked, when was the study or poll conducted, and why the study or poll was conducted.
• The answers to these questions will help you understand the purpose of the statistical research that was conducted, and whether it would be helpful in your own research paper.

• You may find the statistics set forth in a report that describes these statistics and what they mean.
• However, just because someone else has explained the meaning of the statistics doesn't mean you should necessarily take their word for it.
• Draw on your understanding of the background of the study or poll, and look at the interpretation the author presents critically.
• Remove the statistics themselves from the text of the report, for example by copying them into a table. Then you can interpret them on your own without being distracted by the author's interpretation.
• If you create a table of your own from a statistical report, make sure you label it accurately so you can cite the source of the statistics later if you decide to include them in your research paper.

• If you're looking at raw data, you may need to actually calculate the statistics yourself. If you don't have any experience with statistics, talk to someone who does.
• Your teacher or professor may be able to help you understand how to calculate the statistics correctly.
• Even if you have access to a statistics program, there's no guarantee that the result you get actually will be accurate unless you know what information to provide the program. Remember the common phrase with computer programs: "Garbage in, garbage out."
• Don't assume you can just divide two numbers to get a percentage, for example. There are other probability elements that must be taken into account.

Writing with Statistics

• For example, the word "average" is one you often see in everyday writing. However, when you're writing about statistics, the word "average" could mean up to three different things.
• The word "average" can be used to mean the median (the middle value in the set of data), the mean (the result when you add all the values in the set and then divide by the quantity of numbers in the set), or the mode (the number or value in the set that occurs most frequently).
• Therefore, if you read "average," you need to know which of these definitions is meant.
• You also want to make sure that any two or more statistics you're comparing are using the same definition of "average." Not doing so could lead to a significant misinterpretation of your statistics and what they mean in the context of your research.

• Charts and graphs also can be useful even when you are referencing the statistics within your text. Using graphical elements can break up the text and enhance reader understanding.
• Tables, charts, and graphs can be especially beneficial if you ultimately will have to give a presentation of your research paper, either to your class or to teachers or professors.
• As difficult as statistics are to follow in print, they can be even more difficult to follow when someone is merely telling them to you.
• To test the readability of the statistics in your paper, read those paragraphs out loud to yourself. If you find yourself stumbling over them or getting confused as you read, it's likely anyone else will stumble too when reading them for the first time.

• This often has as much to do with how you describe the statistics as the specific statistics you use.
• Keep in mind that numbers themselves are neutral – it is your interpretation of those numbers that gives them meaning.

• For example, if you present the statistic that the murder rate in one neighborhood increased by 500 percent, and in the same period high school graduation rates decreased by 300 percent, these numbers are virtually meaningless without context.
• You don't know what a 500 percent increase entails unless you know what the rate was before the period measured by the statistic.
• When you say "500 percent," it sounds like a large amount, but if there was only one murder before the period measured by the statistic, then what you're actually saying is that during that period there were five murders.
• Additionally, your statistics may be more meaningful if you can compare them to similar statistics in other areas.
• Think of it in terms of a scientific experiment. If scientists are studying the effects of a particular drug to treat a disease, they also include a control group that doesn't take the drug. Comparing the test group to the control group helps show the drug's effectiveness.

• For example, you might write "According to the FBI, violent crime in McKinley County increased by 37 percent between the years 2000 and 2012."
• A textual citation provides immediate authority to the statistics you're using, allowing your readers to trust the statistics and move on to the next point.
• On the other hand, if you don't state where the statistics came from, your reader may be too busy mentally questioning the source of your statistics to fully grasp the point you're trying to make.

Expert Q&A

You might also like.

• ↑ https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/672/1/
• ↑ http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/statistics/
• ↑ https://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats
• ↑ https://www.usa.gov/statistics
• ↑ https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/672/02/
• ↑ http://libguides.lib.msu.edu/datastats
• ↑ https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/672/06/
• ↑ https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/672/04/

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The Beginner's Guide to Statistical Analysis | 5 Steps & Examples

Statistical analysis means investigating trends, patterns, and relationships using quantitative data . It is an important research tool used by scientists, governments, businesses, and other organisations.

To draw valid conclusions, statistical analysis requires careful planning from the very start of the research process . You need to specify your hypotheses and make decisions about your research design, sample size, and sampling procedure.

After collecting data from your sample, you can organise and summarise the data using descriptive statistics . Then, you can use inferential statistics to formally test hypotheses and make estimates about the population. Finally, you can interpret and generalise your findings.

This article is a practical introduction to statistical analysis for students and researchers. We’ll walk you through the steps using two research examples. The first investigates a potential cause-and-effect relationship, while the second investigates a potential correlation between variables.

Table of contents

Step 1: write your hypotheses and plan your research design, step 2: collect data from a sample, step 3: summarise your data with descriptive statistics, step 4: test hypotheses or make estimates with inferential statistics, step 5: interpret your results, frequently asked questions about statistics.

To collect valid data for statistical analysis, you first need to specify your hypotheses and plan out your research design.

Writing statistical hypotheses

The goal of research is often to investigate a relationship between variables within a population . You start with a prediction, and use statistical analysis to test that prediction.

A statistical hypothesis is a formal way of writing a prediction about a population. Every research prediction is rephrased into null and alternative hypotheses that can be tested using sample data.

While the null hypothesis always predicts no effect or no relationship between variables, the alternative hypothesis states your research prediction of an effect or relationship.

• Null hypothesis: A 5-minute meditation exercise will have no effect on math test scores in teenagers.
• Alternative hypothesis: A 5-minute meditation exercise will improve math test scores in teenagers.
• Null hypothesis: Parental income and GPA have no relationship with each other in college students.
• Alternative hypothesis: Parental income and GPA are positively correlated in college students.

Planning your research design

A research design is your overall strategy for data collection and analysis. It determines the statistical tests you can use to test your hypothesis later on.

First, decide whether your research will use a descriptive, correlational, or experimental design. Experiments directly influence variables, whereas descriptive and correlational studies only measure variables.

• In an experimental design , you can assess a cause-and-effect relationship (e.g., the effect of meditation on test scores) using statistical tests of comparison or regression.
• In a correlational design , you can explore relationships between variables (e.g., parental income and GPA) without any assumption of causality using correlation coefficients and significance tests.
• In a descriptive design , you can study the characteristics of a population or phenomenon (e.g., the prevalence of anxiety in U.S. college students) using statistical tests to draw inferences from sample data.

Your research design also concerns whether you’ll compare participants at the group level or individual level, or both.

• In a between-subjects design , you compare the group-level outcomes of participants who have been exposed to different treatments (e.g., those who performed a meditation exercise vs those who didn’t).
• In a within-subjects design , you compare repeated measures from participants who have participated in all treatments of a study (e.g., scores from before and after performing a meditation exercise).
• In a mixed (factorial) design , one variable is altered between subjects and another is altered within subjects (e.g., pretest and posttest scores from participants who either did or didn’t do a meditation exercise).
• Experimental
• Correlational

First, you’ll take baseline test scores from participants. Then, your participants will undergo a 5-minute meditation exercise. Finally, you’ll record participants’ scores from a second math test.

In this experiment, the independent variable is the 5-minute meditation exercise, and the dependent variable is the math test score from before and after the intervention. Example: Correlational research design In a correlational study, you test whether there is a relationship between parental income and GPA in graduating college students. To collect your data, you will ask participants to fill in a survey and self-report their parents’ incomes and their own GPA.

Measuring variables

When planning a research design, you should operationalise your variables and decide exactly how you will measure them.

For statistical analysis, it’s important to consider the level of measurement of your variables, which tells you what kind of data they contain:

• Categorical data represents groupings. These may be nominal (e.g., gender) or ordinal (e.g. level of language ability).
• Quantitative data represents amounts. These may be on an interval scale (e.g. test score) or a ratio scale (e.g. age).

Many variables can be measured at different levels of precision. For example, age data can be quantitative (8 years old) or categorical (young). If a variable is coded numerically (e.g., level of agreement from 1–5), it doesn’t automatically mean that it’s quantitative instead of categorical.

Identifying the measurement level is important for choosing appropriate statistics and hypothesis tests. For example, you can calculate a mean score with quantitative data, but not with categorical data.

In a research study, along with measures of your variables of interest, you’ll often collect data on relevant participant characteristics.

In most cases, it’s too difficult or expensive to collect data from every member of the population you’re interested in studying. Instead, you’ll collect data from a sample.

Statistical analysis allows you to apply your findings beyond your own sample as long as you use appropriate sampling procedures . You should aim for a sample that is representative of the population.

Sampling for statistical analysis

There are two main approaches to selecting a sample.

• Probability sampling: every member of the population has a chance of being selected for the study through random selection.
• Non-probability sampling: some members of the population are more likely than others to be selected for the study because of criteria such as convenience or voluntary self-selection.

In theory, for highly generalisable findings, you should use a probability sampling method. Random selection reduces sampling bias and ensures that data from your sample is actually typical of the population. Parametric tests can be used to make strong statistical inferences when data are collected using probability sampling.

But in practice, it’s rarely possible to gather the ideal sample. While non-probability samples are more likely to be biased, they are much easier to recruit and collect data from. Non-parametric tests are more appropriate for non-probability samples, but they result in weaker inferences about the population.

If you want to use parametric tests for non-probability samples, you have to make the case that:

• your sample is representative of the population you’re generalising your findings to.
• your sample lacks systematic bias.

Keep in mind that external validity means that you can only generalise your conclusions to others who share the characteristics of your sample. For instance, results from Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich and Democratic samples (e.g., college students in the US) aren’t automatically applicable to all non-WEIRD populations.

If you apply parametric tests to data from non-probability samples, be sure to elaborate on the limitations of how far your results can be generalised in your discussion section .

Create an appropriate sampling procedure

Based on the resources available for your research, decide on how you’ll recruit participants.

• Will you have resources to advertise your study widely, including outside of your university setting?
• Will you have the means to recruit a diverse sample that represents a broad population?
• Do you have time to contact and follow up with members of hard-to-reach groups?

Your participants are self-selected by their schools. Although you’re using a non-probability sample, you aim for a diverse and representative sample. Example: Sampling (correlational study) Your main population of interest is male college students in the US. Using social media advertising, you recruit senior-year male college students from a smaller subpopulation: seven universities in the Boston area.

Calculate sufficient sample size

Before recruiting participants, decide on your sample size either by looking at other studies in your field or using statistics. A sample that’s too small may be unrepresentative of the sample, while a sample that’s too large will be more costly than necessary.

There are many sample size calculators online. Different formulas are used depending on whether you have subgroups or how rigorous your study should be (e.g., in clinical research). As a rule of thumb, a minimum of 30 units or more per subgroup is necessary.

To use these calculators, you have to understand and input these key components:

• Significance level (alpha): the risk of rejecting a true null hypothesis that you are willing to take, usually set at 5%.
• Statistical power : the probability of your study detecting an effect of a certain size if there is one, usually 80% or higher.
• Expected effect size : a standardised indication of how large the expected result of your study will be, usually based on other similar studies.
• Population standard deviation: an estimate of the population parameter based on a previous study or a pilot study of your own.

Once you’ve collected all of your data, you can inspect them and calculate descriptive statistics that summarise them.

Inspect your data

There are various ways to inspect your data, including the following:

• Organising data from each variable in frequency distribution tables .
• Displaying data from a key variable in a bar chart to view the distribution of responses.
• Visualising the relationship between two variables using a scatter plot .

By visualising your data in tables and graphs, you can assess whether your data follow a skewed or normal distribution and whether there are any outliers or missing data.

A normal distribution means that your data are symmetrically distributed around a center where most values lie, with the values tapering off at the tail ends.

In contrast, a skewed distribution is asymmetric and has more values on one end than the other. The shape of the distribution is important to keep in mind because only some descriptive statistics should be used with skewed distributions.

Extreme outliers can also produce misleading statistics, so you may need a systematic approach to dealing with these values.

Calculate measures of central tendency

Measures of central tendency describe where most of the values in a data set lie. Three main measures of central tendency are often reported:

• Mode : the most popular response or value in the data set.
• Median : the value in the exact middle of the data set when ordered from low to high.
• Mean : the sum of all values divided by the number of values.

However, depending on the shape of the distribution and level of measurement, only one or two of these measures may be appropriate. For example, many demographic characteristics can only be described using the mode or proportions, while a variable like reaction time may not have a mode at all.

Calculate measures of variability

Measures of variability tell you how spread out the values in a data set are. Four main measures of variability are often reported:

• Range : the highest value minus the lowest value of the data set.
• Interquartile range : the range of the middle half of the data set.
• Standard deviation : the average distance between each value in your data set and the mean.
• Variance : the square of the standard deviation.

Once again, the shape of the distribution and level of measurement should guide your choice of variability statistics. The interquartile range is the best measure for skewed distributions, while standard deviation and variance provide the best information for normal distributions.

Using your table, you should check whether the units of the descriptive statistics are comparable for pretest and posttest scores. For example, are the variance levels similar across the groups? Are there any extreme values? If there are, you may need to identify and remove extreme outliers in your data set or transform your data before performing a statistical test.

From this table, we can see that the mean score increased after the meditation exercise, and the variances of the two scores are comparable. Next, we can perform a statistical test to find out if this improvement in test scores is statistically significant in the population. Example: Descriptive statistics (correlational study) After collecting data from 653 students, you tabulate descriptive statistics for annual parental income and GPA.

It’s important to check whether you have a broad range of data points. If you don’t, your data may be skewed towards some groups more than others (e.g., high academic achievers), and only limited inferences can be made about a relationship.

A number that describes a sample is called a statistic , while a number describing a population is called a parameter . Using inferential statistics , you can make conclusions about population parameters based on sample statistics.

Researchers often use two main methods (simultaneously) to make inferences in statistics.

• Estimation: calculating population parameters based on sample statistics.
• Hypothesis testing: a formal process for testing research predictions about the population using samples.

You can make two types of estimates of population parameters from sample statistics:

• A point estimate : a value that represents your best guess of the exact parameter.
• An interval estimate : a range of values that represent your best guess of where the parameter lies.

If your aim is to infer and report population characteristics from sample data, it’s best to use both point and interval estimates in your paper.

You can consider a sample statistic a point estimate for the population parameter when you have a representative sample (e.g., in a wide public opinion poll, the proportion of a sample that supports the current government is taken as the population proportion of government supporters).

There’s always error involved in estimation, so you should also provide a confidence interval as an interval estimate to show the variability around a point estimate.

A confidence interval uses the standard error and the z score from the standard normal distribution to convey where you’d generally expect to find the population parameter most of the time.

Hypothesis testing

Using data from a sample, you can test hypotheses about relationships between variables in the population. Hypothesis testing starts with the assumption that the null hypothesis is true in the population, and you use statistical tests to assess whether the null hypothesis can be rejected or not.

Statistical tests determine where your sample data would lie on an expected distribution of sample data if the null hypothesis were true. These tests give two main outputs:

• A test statistic tells you how much your data differs from the null hypothesis of the test.
• A p value tells you the likelihood of obtaining your results if the null hypothesis is actually true in the population.

Statistical tests come in three main varieties:

• Comparison tests assess group differences in outcomes.
• Regression tests assess cause-and-effect relationships between variables.
• Correlation tests assess relationships between variables without assuming causation.

Your choice of statistical test depends on your research questions, research design, sampling method, and data characteristics.

Parametric tests

Parametric tests make powerful inferences about the population based on sample data. But to use them, some assumptions must be met, and only some types of variables can be used. If your data violate these assumptions, you can perform appropriate data transformations or use alternative non-parametric tests instead.

A regression models the extent to which changes in a predictor variable results in changes in outcome variable(s).

• A simple linear regression includes one predictor variable and one outcome variable.
• A multiple linear regression includes two or more predictor variables and one outcome variable.

Comparison tests usually compare the means of groups. These may be the means of different groups within a sample (e.g., a treatment and control group), the means of one sample group taken at different times (e.g., pretest and posttest scores), or a sample mean and a population mean.

• A t test is for exactly 1 or 2 groups when the sample is small (30 or less).
• A z test is for exactly 1 or 2 groups when the sample is large.
• An ANOVA is for 3 or more groups.

The z and t tests have subtypes based on the number and types of samples and the hypotheses:

• If you have only one sample that you want to compare to a population mean, use a one-sample test .
• If you have paired measurements (within-subjects design), use a dependent (paired) samples test .
• If you have completely separate measurements from two unmatched groups (between-subjects design), use an independent (unpaired) samples test .
• If you expect a difference between groups in a specific direction, use a one-tailed test .
• If you don’t have any expectations for the direction of a difference between groups, use a two-tailed test .

The only parametric correlation test is Pearson’s r . The correlation coefficient ( r ) tells you the strength of a linear relationship between two quantitative variables.

However, to test whether the correlation in the sample is strong enough to be important in the population, you also need to perform a significance test of the correlation coefficient, usually a t test, to obtain a p value. This test uses your sample size to calculate how much the correlation coefficient differs from zero in the population.

You use a dependent-samples, one-tailed t test to assess whether the meditation exercise significantly improved math test scores. The test gives you:

• a t value (test statistic) of 3.00
• a p value of 0.0028

Although Pearson’s r is a test statistic, it doesn’t tell you anything about how significant the correlation is in the population. You also need to test whether this sample correlation coefficient is large enough to demonstrate a correlation in the population.

A t test can also determine how significantly a correlation coefficient differs from zero based on sample size. Since you expect a positive correlation between parental income and GPA, you use a one-sample, one-tailed t test. The t test gives you:

• a t value of 3.08
• a p value of 0.001

The final step of statistical analysis is interpreting your results.

Statistical significance

In hypothesis testing, statistical significance is the main criterion for forming conclusions. You compare your p value to a set significance level (usually 0.05) to decide whether your results are statistically significant or non-significant.

Statistically significant results are considered unlikely to have arisen solely due to chance. There is only a very low chance of such a result occurring if the null hypothesis is true in the population.

This means that you believe the meditation intervention, rather than random factors, directly caused the increase in test scores. Example: Interpret your results (correlational study) You compare your p value of 0.001 to your significance threshold of 0.05. With a p value under this threshold, you can reject the null hypothesis. This indicates a statistically significant correlation between parental income and GPA in male college students.

Note that correlation doesn’t always mean causation, because there are often many underlying factors contributing to a complex variable like GPA. Even if one variable is related to another, this may be because of a third variable influencing both of them, or indirect links between the two variables.

Effect size

A statistically significant result doesn’t necessarily mean that there are important real life applications or clinical outcomes for a finding.

In contrast, the effect size indicates the practical significance of your results. It’s important to report effect sizes along with your inferential statistics for a complete picture of your results. You should also report interval estimates of effect sizes if you’re writing an APA style paper .

With a Cohen’s d of 0.72, there’s medium to high practical significance to your finding that the meditation exercise improved test scores. Example: Effect size (correlational study) To determine the effect size of the correlation coefficient, you compare your Pearson’s r value to Cohen’s effect size criteria.

Decision errors

Type I and Type II errors are mistakes made in research conclusions. A Type I error means rejecting the null hypothesis when it’s actually true, while a Type II error means failing to reject the null hypothesis when it’s false.

You can aim to minimise the risk of these errors by selecting an optimal significance level and ensuring high power . However, there’s a trade-off between the two errors, so a fine balance is necessary.

Frequentist versus Bayesian statistics

Traditionally, frequentist statistics emphasises null hypothesis significance testing and always starts with the assumption of a true null hypothesis.

However, Bayesian statistics has grown in popularity as an alternative approach in the last few decades. In this approach, you use previous research to continually update your hypotheses based on your expectations and observations.

Bayes factor compares the relative strength of evidence for the null versus the alternative hypothesis rather than making a conclusion about rejecting the null hypothesis or not.

Hypothesis testing is a formal procedure for investigating our ideas about the world using statistics. It is used by scientists to test specific predictions, called hypotheses , by calculating how likely it is that a pattern or relationship between variables could have arisen by chance.

The research methods you use depend on the type of data you need to answer your research question .

• If you want to measure something or test a hypothesis , use quantitative methods . If you want to explore ideas, thoughts, and meanings, use qualitative methods .
• If you want to analyse a large amount of readily available data, use secondary data. If you want data specific to your purposes with control over how they are generated, collect primary data.
• If you want to establish cause-and-effect relationships between variables , use experimental methods. If you want to understand the characteristics of a research subject, use descriptive methods.

Statistical analysis is the main method for analyzing quantitative research data . It uses probabilities and models to test predictions about a population from sample data.

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StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2024 Jan-.

StatPearls [Internet].

Exploratory data analysis: frequencies, descriptive statistics, histograms, and boxplots.

Jacob Shreffler ; Martin R. Huecker .

Affiliations

Last Update: November 3, 2023 .

• Definition/Introduction

Researchers must utilize exploratory data techniques to present findings to a target audience and create appropriate graphs and figures. Researchers can determine if outliers exist, data are missing, and statistical assumptions will be upheld by understanding data. Additionally, it is essential to comprehend these data when describing them in conclusions of a paper, in a meeting with colleagues invested in the findings, or while reading others’ work.

• Issues of Concern

This comprehension begins with exploring these data through the outputs discussed in this article. Individuals who do not conduct research must still comprehend new studies, and knowledge of fundamentals in analyzing data and interpretation of histograms and boxplots facilitates the ability to appraise recent publications accurately. Without this familiarity, decisions could be implemented based on inaccurate delivery or interpretation of medical studies.

Frequencies and Descriptive Statistics

Effective presentation of study results, in presentation or manuscript form, typically starts with frequencies and descriptive statistics (ie, mean, medians, standard deviations). One can get a better sense of the variables by examining these data to determine whether a balanced and sufficient research design exists. Frequencies also inform on missing data and give a sense of outliers (will be discussed below).

Luckily, software programs are available to conduct exploratory data analysis. For this chapter, we will be examining the following research question.

RQ: Are there differences in drug life (length of effect) for Drug 23 based on the administration site?

A more precise hypothesis could be: Is drug 23 longer-lasting when administered via site A compared to site B?

To address this research question, exploratory data analysis is conducted. First, it is essential to start with the frequencies of the variables. To keep things simple, only variables of minutes (drug life effect) and administration site (A vs B) are included. See Image. Figure 1 for outputs for frequencies.

Figure 1 shows that the administration site appears to be a balanced design with 50 individuals in each group. The excerpt for minutes frequencies is the bottom portion of Figure 1 and shows how many cases fell into each time frame with the cumulative percent on the right-hand side. In examining Figure 1, one suspiciously low measurement (135) was observed, considering time variables. If a data point seems inaccurate, a researcher should find this case and confirm if this was an entry error. For the sake of this review, the authors state that this was an entry error and should have been entered 535 and not 135. Had the analysis occurred without checking this, the data analysis, results, and conclusions would have been invalid. When finding any entry errors and determining how groups are balanced, potential missing data is explored. If not responsibly evaluated, missing values can nullify results.  

After replacing the incorrect 135 with 535, descriptive statistics, including the mean, median, mode, minimum/maximum scores, and standard deviation were examined. Output for the research example for the variable of minutes can be seen in Figure 2. Observe each variable to ensure that the mean seems reasonable and that the minimum and maximum are within an appropriate range based on medical competence or an available codebook. One assumption common in statistical analyses is a normal distribution. Image . Figure 2 shows that the mode differs from the mean and the median. We have visualization tools such as histograms to examine these scores for normality and outliers before making decisions.

Histograms are useful in assessing normality, as many statistical tests (eg, ANOVA and regression) assume the data have a normal distribution. When data deviate from a normal distribution, it is quantified using skewness and kurtosis. [1]  Skewness occurs when one tail of the curve is longer. If the tail is lengthier on the left side of the curve (more cases on the higher values), this would be negatively skewed, whereas if the tail is longer on the right side, it would be positively skewed. Kurtosis is another facet of normality. Positive kurtosis occurs when the center has many values falling in the middle, whereas negative kurtosis occurs when there are very heavy tails. [2]

Additionally, histograms reveal outliers: data points either entered incorrectly or truly very different from the rest of the sample. When there are outliers, one must determine accuracy based on random chance or the error in the experiment and provide strong justification if the decision is to exclude them. [3]  Outliers require attention to ensure the data analysis accurately reflects the majority of the data and is not influenced by extreme values; cleaning these outliers can result in better quality decision-making in clinical practice. [4]  A common approach to determining if a variable is approximately normally distributed is converting values to z scores and determining if any scores are less than -3 or greater than 3. For a normal distribution, about 99% of scores should lie within three standard deviations of the mean. [5]  Importantly, one should not automatically throw out any values outside of this range but consider it in corroboration with the other factors aforementioned. Outliers are relatively common, so when these are prevalent, one must assess the risks and benefits of exclusion. [6]

Image . Figure 3 provides examples of histograms. In Figure 3A, 2 possible outliers causing kurtosis are observed. If values within 3 standard deviations are used, the result in Figure 3B are observed. This histogram appears much closer to an approximately normal distribution with the kurtosis being treated. Remember, all evidence should be considered before eliminating outliers. When reporting outliers in scientific paper outputs, account for the number of outliers excluded and justify why they were excluded.

Boxplots can examine for outliers, assess the range of data, and show differences among groups. Boxplots provide a visual representation of ranges and medians, illustrating differences amongst groups, and are useful in various outlets, including evidence-based medicine. [7]  Boxplots provide a picture of data distribution when there are numerous values, and all values cannot be displayed (ie, a scatterplot). [8]  Figure 4 illustrates the differences between drug site administration and the length of drug life from the above example.

Image . Figure 4 shows differences with potential clinical impact. Had any outliers existed (data from the histogram were cleaned), they would appear outside the line endpoint. The red boxes represent the middle 50% of scores. The lines within each red box represent the median number of minutes within each administration site. The horizontal lines at the top and bottom of each line connected to the red box represent the 25th and 75th percentiles. In examining the difference boxplots, an overlap in minutes between 2 administration sites were observed: the approximate top 25 percent from site B had the same time noted as the bottom 25 percent at site A. Site B had a median minute amount under 525, whereas administration site A had a length greater than 550. If there were no differences in adverse reactions at site A, analysis of this figure provides evidence that healthcare providers should administer the drug via site A. Researchers could follow by testing a third administration site, site C. Image . Figure 5 shows what would happen if site C led to a longer drug life compared to site A.

Figure 5 displays the same site A data as Figure 4, but something looks different. The significant variance at site C makes site A’s variance appear smaller. In order words, patients who were administered the drug via site C had a larger range of scores. Thus, some patients experience a longer half-life when the drug is administered via site C than the median of site A; however, the broad range (lack of accuracy) and lower median should be the focus. The precision of minutes is much more compacted in site A. Therefore, the median is higher, and the range is more precise. One may conclude that this makes site A a more desirable site.

• Clinical Significance

Ultimately, by understanding basic exploratory data methods, medical researchers and consumers of research can make quality and data-informed decisions. These data-informed decisions will result in the ability to appraise the clinical significance of research outputs. By overlooking these fundamentals in statistics, critical errors in judgment can occur.

• Nursing, Allied Health, and Interprofessional Team Interventions

All interprofessional healthcare team members need to be at least familiar with, if not well-versed in, these statistical analyses so they can read and interpret study data and apply the data implications in their everyday practice. This approach allows all practitioners to remain abreast of the latest developments and provides valuable data for evidence-based medicine, ultimately leading to improved patient outcomes.

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Exploratory Data Analysis Figure 1 Contributed by Martin Huecker, MD and Jacob Shreffler, PhD

Exploratory Data Analysis Figure 2 Contributed by Martin Huecker, MD and Jacob Shreffler, PhD

Exploratory Data Analysis Figure 3 Contributed by Martin Huecker, MD and Jacob Shreffler, PhD

Exploratory Data Analysis Figure 4 Contributed by Martin Huecker, MD and Jacob Shreffler, PhD

Exploratory Data Analysis Figure 5 Contributed by Martin Huecker, MD and Jacob Shreffler, PhD

Disclosure: Jacob Shreffler declares no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies.

Disclosure: Martin Huecker declares no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies.

This book is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ ), which permits others to distribute the work, provided that the article is not altered or used commercially. You are not required to obtain permission to distribute this article, provided that you credit the author and journal.

• Cite this Page Shreffler J, Huecker MR. Exploratory Data Analysis: Frequencies, Descriptive Statistics, Histograms, and Boxplots. [Updated 2023 Nov 3]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2024 Jan-.

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Top 99+ Trending Statistics Research Topics for Students

Being a statistics student, finding the best statistics research topics is quite challenging. But not anymore; find the best statistics research topics now!!!

Statistics is one of the tough subjects because it consists of lots of formulas, equations and many more. Therefore the students need to spend their time to understand these concepts. And when it comes to finding the best statistics research project for their topics, statistics students are always looking for someone to help them. 

In this blog, we will share with you the most interesting and trending statistics research topics in 2023. It will not just help you to stand out in your class but also help you to explore more about the world.

If you face any problem regarding statistics, then don’t worry. You can get the best statistics assignment help from one of our experts.

As you know, it is always suggested that you should work on interesting topics. That is why we have mentioned the most interesting research topics for college students and high school students. Here in this blog post, we will share with you the list of 99+ awesome statistics research topics.

Why Do We Need to Have Good Statistics Research Topics?

Table of Contents

Having a good research topic will not just help you score good grades, but it will also allow you to finish your project quickly. Because whenever we work on something interesting, our productivity automatically boosts. Thus, you need not invest lots of time and effort, and you can achieve the best with minimal effort and time. 

What Are Some Interesting Research Topics?

If we talk about the interesting research topics in statistics, it can vary from student to student. But here are the key topics that are quite interesting for almost every student:-

• Literacy rate in a city.
• Abortion and pregnancy rate in the USA.
• Eating disorders in the citizens.
• Parent role in self-esteem and confidence of the student.
• Uses of AI in our daily life to business corporates.

Top 99+ Trending Statistics Research Topics For 2023

Here in this section, we will tell you more than 99 trending statistics research topics:

Sports Statistics Research Topics

• Statistical analysis for legs and head injuries in Football.
• Statistical analysis for shoulder and knee injuries in MotoGP.
• Deep statistical evaluation for the doping test in sports from the past decade.
• Statistical observation on the performance of athletes in the last Olympics.
• Role and effect of sports in the life of the student.

Psychology Research Topics for Statistics

• Deep statistical analysis of the effect of obesity on the student’s mental health in high school and college students.
• Statistical evolution to find out the suicide reason among students and adults.
• Statistics analysis to find out the effect of divorce on children in a country.
• Psychology affects women because of the gender gap in specific country areas.
• Statistics analysis to find out the cause of online bullying in students’ lives. 
• In Psychology, PTSD and descriptive tendencies are discussed.
• The function of researchers in statistical testing and probability.
• Acceptable significance and probability thresholds in clinical Psychology.
• The utilization of hypothesis and the role of P 0.05 for improved comprehension.
• What types of statistical data are typically rejected in psychology?
• The application of basic statistical principles and reasoning in psychological analysis.
• The role of correlation is when several psychological concepts are at risk.
• Actual case study learning and modeling are used to generate statistical reports.
• In psychology, naturalistic observation is used as a research sample.
• How should descriptive statistics be used to represent behavioral data sets?

Applied Statistics Research Topics

• Does education have a deep impact on the financial success of an individual?
• The investment in digital technology is having a meaningful return for corporations?
• The gap of financial wealth between rich and poor in the USA.
• A statistical approach to identify the effects of high-frequency trading in financial markets.
• Statistics analysis to determine the impact of the multi-agent model in financial markets. 

Personalized Medicine Statistics Research Topics

• Statistical analysis on the effect of methamphetamine on substance abusers.
• Deep research on the impact of the Corona vaccine on the Omnicrone variant. 
• Find out the best cancer treatment approach between orthodox therapies and alternative therapies.
• Statistics analysis to identify the role of genes in the child’s overall immunity.
• What factors help the patients to survive from Coronavirus .

Experimental Design Statistics Research Topics

• Generic vs private education is one of the best for the students and has better financial return.
• Psychology vs physiology: which leads the person not to quit their addictions?
• Effect of breastmilk vs packed milk on the infant child overall development
• Which causes more accidents: male alcoholics vs female alcoholics.
• What causes the student not to reveal the cyberbullying in front of their parents in most cases. 

Easy Statistics Research Topics

• Application of statistics in the world of data science
• Statistics for finance: how statistics is helping the company to grow their finance
• Advantages and disadvantages of Radar chart
• Minor marriages in south-east Asia and African countries.
• Discussion of ANOVA and correlation.
• What statistical methods are most effective for active sports?
• When measuring the correctness of college tests, a ranking statistical approach is used.
• Statistics play an important role in Data Mining operations.
• The practical application of heat estimation in engineering fields.
• In the field of speech recognition, statistical analysis is used.
• Estimating probiotics: how much time is necessary for an accurate statistical sample?
• How will the United States population grow in the next twenty years?
• The legislation and statistical reports deal with contentious issues.
• The application of empirical entropy approaches with online grammar checking.
• Transparency in statistical methodology and the reporting system of the United States Census Bureau.

Statistical Research Topics for High School

• Uses of statistics in chemometrics
• Statistics in business analytics and business intelligence
• Importance of statistics in physics.
• Deep discussion about multivariate statistics
• Uses of Statistics in machine learning

Survey Topics for Statistics

• Gather the data of the most qualified professionals in a specific area.
• Survey the time wasted by the students in watching Tvs or Netflix.
• Have a survey the fully vaccinated people in the USA 
• Gather information on the effect of a government survey on the life of citizens
• Survey to identify the English speakers in the world.

Statistics Research Paper Topics for Graduates

• Have a deep decision of Bayes theorems
• Discuss the Bayesian hierarchical models
• Analysis of the process of Japanese restaurants. 
• Deep analysis of Lévy’s continuity theorem
• Analysis of the principle of maximum entropy

AP Statistics Topics

• Discuss about the importance of econometrics
• Analyze the pros and cons of Probit Model
• Types of probability models and their uses
• Deep discussion of ortho stochastic matrix
• Find out the ways to get an adjacency matrix quickly

Good Statistics Research Topics 

• National income and the regulation of cryptocurrency.
• The benefits and drawbacks of regression analysis.
• How can estimate methods be used to correct statistical differences?
• Mathematical prediction models vs observation tactics.
• In sociology research, there is bias in quantitative data analysis.
• Inferential analytical approaches vs. descriptive statistics.
• How reliable are AI-based methods in statistical analysis?
• The internet news reporting and the fluctuations: statistics reports.
• The importance of estimate in modeled statistics and artificial sampling.

Business Statistics Topics

• Role of statistics in business in 2023
• Importance of business statistics and analytics
• What is the role of central tendency and dispersion in statistics
• Best process of sampling business data.
• Importance of statistics in big data.
• The characteristics of business data sampling: benefits and cons of software solutions.
• How may two different business tasks be tackled concurrently using linear regression analysis?
• In economic data relations, index numbers, random probability, and correctness are all important.
• The advantages of a dataset approach to statistics in programming statistics.
• Commercial statistics: how should the data be prepared for maximum accuracy?

Statistical Research Topics for College Students

• Evaluate the role of John Tukey’s contribution to statistics.
• The role of statistics to improve ADHD treatment.
• The uses and timeline of probability in statistics.
• Deep analysis of Gertrude Cox’s experimental design in statistics.
• Discuss about Florence Nightingale in statistics.
• What sorts of music do college students prefer?
• The Main Effect of Different Subjects on Student Performance.
• The Importance of Analytics in Statistics Research.
• The Influence of a Better Student in Class.
• Do extracurricular activities help in the transformation of personalities?
• Backbenchers’ Impact on Class Performance.
• Medication’s Importance in Class Performance.
• Are e-books better than traditional books?
• Choosing aspects of a subject in college

How To Write Good Statistics Research Topics?

So, the main question that arises here is how you can write good statistics research topics. The trick is understanding the methodology that is used to collect and interpret statistical data. However, if you are trying to pick any topic for your statistics project, you must think about it before going any further. 

As a result, it will teach you about the data types that will be researched because the sample will be chosen correctly. On the other hand, your basic outline for choosing the correct topics is as follows:

• Introduction of a problem
• Methodology explanation and choice. 
• Statistical research itself is in the main part (Body Part). 
• Samples deviations and variables. 
• Lastly, statistical interpretation is your last part (conclusion). 

Note:   Always include the sources from which you obtained the statistics data.

Top 3 Tips to Choose Good Statistics Research Topics

It can be quite easy for some students to pick a good statistics research topic without the help of an essay writer. But we know that it is not a common scenario for every student. That is why we will mention some of the best tips that will help you choose good statistics research topics for your next project. Either you are in a hurry or have enough time to explore. These tips will help you in every scenario.

1. Narrow down your research topic

We all start with many topics as we are not sure about our specific interests or niche. The initial step to picking up a good research topic for college or school students is to narrow down the research topic.

For this, you need to categorize the matter first. And then pick a specific category as per your interest. After that, brainstorm about the topic’s content and how you can make the points catchy, focused, directional, clear, and specific. 

2. Choose a topic that gives you curiosity

After categorizing the statistics research topics, it is time to pick one from the category. Don’t pick the most common topic because it will not help your grades and knowledge. Instead of it, please choose the best one, in which you have little information, or you are more likely to explore it.

In a statistics research paper, you always can explore something beyond your studies. By doing this, you will be more energetic to work on this project. And you will also feel glad to get them lots of information you were willing to have but didn’t get because of any reasons.

It will also make your professor happy to see your work. Ultimately it will affect your grades with a positive attitude.

3. Choose a manageable topic

Now you have decided on the topic, but you need to make sure that your research topic should be manageable. You will have limited time and resources to complete your project if you pick one of the deep statistics research topics with massive information.

Then you will struggle at the last moment and most probably not going to finish your project on time. Therefore, spend enough time exploring the topic and have a good idea about the time duration and resources you will use for the project. 

Statistics research topics are massive in numbers. Because statistics operations can be performed on anything from our psychology to our fitness. Therefore there are lots more statistics research topics to explore. But if you are not finding it challenging, then you can take the help of our statistics experts . They will help you to pick the most interesting and trending statistics research topics for your projects. 

With this help, you can also save your precious time to invest it in something else. You can also come up with a plethora of topics of your choice and we will help you to pick the best one among them. Apart from that, if you are working on a project and you are not sure whether that is the topic that excites you to work on it or not. Then we can also help you to clear all your doubts on the statistics research topic. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. what are some good topics for the statistics project.

Have a look at some good topics for statistics projects:- 1. Research the average height and physics of basketball players. 2. Birth and death rate in a specific city or country. 3. Study on the obesity rate of children and adults in the USA. 4. The growth rate of China in the past few years 5. Major causes of injury in Football

Q2. What are the topics in statistics?

Statistics has lots of topics. It is hard to cover all of them in a short answer. But here are the major ones: conditional probability, variance, random variable, probability distributions, common discrete, and many more. 

Q3. What are the top 10 research topics?

Here are the top 10 research topics that you can try in 2023:

1. Plant Science 2. Mental health 3. Nutritional Immunology 4. Mood disorders 5. Aging brains 6. Infectious disease 7. Music therapy 8. Political misinformation 9. Canine Connection 10. Sustainable agriculture

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Title: to democratize research with sensitive data, we should make synthetic data more accessible.

Abstract: For over 30 years, synthetic data has been heralded as a promising solution to make sensitive datasets accessible. However, despite much research effort and several high-profile use-cases, the widespread adoption of synthetic data as a tool for open, accessible, reproducible research with sensitive data is still a distant dream. In this opinion, Erik-Jan van Kesteren, head of the ODISSEI Social Data Science team, argues that in order to progress towards widespread adoption of synthetic data as a privacy enhancing technology, the data science research community should shift focus away from developing better synthesis methods: instead, it should develop accessible tools, educate peers, and publish small-scale case studies.

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What the data says about crime in the U.S.

A growing share of Americans say reducing crime should be a top priority for the president and Congress to address this year. Around six-in-ten U.S. adults (58%) hold that view today, up from 47% at the beginning of Joe Biden’s presidency in 2021.

We conducted this analysis to learn more about U.S. crime patterns and how those patterns have changed over time.

The analysis relies on statistics published by the FBI, which we accessed through the Crime Data Explorer , and the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), which we accessed through the  National Crime Victimization Survey data analysis tool .

To measure public attitudes about crime in the U.S., we relied on survey data from Pew Research Center and Gallup.

Additional details about each data source, including survey methodologies, are available by following the links in the text of this analysis.

With the issue likely to come up in this year’s presidential election, here’s what we know about crime in the United States, based on the latest available data from the federal government and other sources.

How much crime is there in the U.S.?

It’s difficult to say for certain. The  two primary sources of government crime statistics  – the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) – paint an incomplete picture.

The FBI publishes  annual data  on crimes that have been reported to law enforcement, but not crimes that haven’t been reported. Historically, the FBI has also only published statistics about a handful of specific violent and property crimes, but not many other types of crime, such as drug crime. And while the FBI’s data is based on information from thousands of federal, state, county, city and other police departments, not all law enforcement agencies participate every year. In 2022, the most recent full year with available statistics, the FBI received data from 83% of participating agencies .

BJS, for its part, tracks crime by fielding a  large annual survey of Americans ages 12 and older and asking them whether they were the victim of certain types of crime in the past six months. One advantage of this approach is that it captures both reported and unreported crimes. But the BJS survey has limitations of its own. Like the FBI, it focuses mainly on a handful of violent and property crimes. And since the BJS data is based on after-the-fact interviews with crime victims, it cannot provide information about one especially high-profile type of offense: murder.

All those caveats aside, looking at the FBI and BJS statistics side-by-side  does  give researchers a good picture of U.S. violent and property crime rates and how they have changed over time. In addition, the FBI is transitioning to a new data collection system – known as the National Incident-Based Reporting System – that eventually will provide national information on a much larger set of crimes , as well as details such as the time and place they occur and the types of weapons involved, if applicable.

Which kinds of crime are most and least common?

Property crime in the U.S. is much more common than violent crime. In 2022, the FBI reported a total of 1,954.4 property crimes per 100,000 people, compared with 380.7 violent crimes per 100,000 people.  

By far the most common form of property crime in 2022 was larceny/theft, followed by motor vehicle theft and burglary. Among violent crimes, aggravated assault was the most common offense, followed by robbery, rape, and murder/nonnegligent manslaughter.

BJS tracks a slightly different set of offenses from the FBI, but it finds the same overall patterns, with theft the most common form of property crime in 2022 and assault the most common form of violent crime.

How have crime rates in the U.S. changed over time?

Both the FBI and BJS data show dramatic declines in U.S. violent and property crime rates since the early 1990s, when crime spiked across much of the nation.

Using the FBI data, the violent crime rate fell 49% between 1993 and 2022, with large decreases in the rates of robbery (-74%), aggravated assault (-39%) and murder/nonnegligent manslaughter (-34%). It’s not possible to calculate the change in the rape rate during this period because the FBI  revised its definition of the offense in 2013 .

The FBI data also shows a 59% reduction in the U.S. property crime rate between 1993 and 2022, with big declines in the rates of burglary (-75%), larceny/theft (-54%) and motor vehicle theft (-53%).

Using the BJS statistics, the declines in the violent and property crime rates are even steeper than those captured in the FBI data. Per BJS, the U.S. violent and property crime rates each fell 71% between 1993 and 2022.

While crime rates have fallen sharply over the long term, the decline hasn’t always been steady. There have been notable increases in certain kinds of crime in some years, including recently.

In 2020, for example, the U.S. murder rate saw its largest single-year increase on record – and by 2022, it remained considerably higher than before the coronavirus pandemic. Preliminary data for 2023, however, suggests that the murder rate fell substantially last year .

How do Americans perceive crime in their country?

Americans tend to believe crime is up, even when official data shows it is down.

In 23 of 27 Gallup surveys conducted since 1993 , at least 60% of U.S. adults have said there is more crime nationally than there was the year before, despite the downward trend in crime rates during most of that period.

While perceptions of rising crime at the national level are common, fewer Americans believe crime is up in their own communities. In every Gallup crime survey since the 1990s, Americans have been much less likely to say crime is up in their area than to say the same about crime nationally.

Public attitudes about crime differ widely by Americans’ party affiliation, race and ethnicity, and other factors . For example, Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are much more likely than Democrats and Democratic leaners to say reducing crime should be a top priority for the president and Congress this year (68% vs. 47%), according to a recent Pew Research Center survey.

How does crime in the U.S. differ by demographic characteristics?

Some groups of Americans are more likely than others to be victims of crime. In the  2022 BJS survey , for example, younger people and those with lower incomes were far more likely to report being the victim of a violent crime than older and higher-income people.

There were no major differences in violent crime victimization rates between male and female respondents or between those who identified as White, Black or Hispanic. But the victimization rate among Asian Americans (a category that includes Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders) was substantially lower than among other racial and ethnic groups.

The same BJS survey asks victims about the demographic characteristics of the offenders in the incidents they experienced.

In 2022, those who are male, younger people and those who are Black accounted for considerably larger shares of perceived offenders in violent incidents than their respective shares of the U.S. population. Men, for instance, accounted for 79% of perceived offenders in violent incidents, compared with 49% of the nation’s 12-and-older population that year. Black Americans accounted for 25% of perceived offenders in violent incidents, about twice their share of the 12-and-older population (12%).

As with all surveys, however, there are several potential sources of error, including the possibility that crime victims’ perceptions about offenders are incorrect.

How does crime in the U.S. differ geographically?

There are big geographic differences in violent and property crime rates.

For example, in 2022, there were more than 700 violent crimes per 100,000 residents in New Mexico and Alaska. That compares with fewer than 200 per 100,000 people in Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Maine, according to the FBI.

The FBI notes that various factors might influence an area’s crime rate, including its population density and economic conditions.

What percentage of crimes are reported to police? What percentage are solved?

Most violent and property crimes in the U.S. are not reported to police, and most of the crimes that  are  reported are not solved.

In its annual survey, BJS asks crime victims whether they reported their crime to police. It found that in 2022, only 41.5% of violent crimes and 31.8% of household property crimes were reported to authorities. BJS notes that there are many reasons why crime might not be reported, including fear of reprisal or of “getting the offender in trouble,” a feeling that police “would not or could not do anything to help,” or a belief that the crime is “a personal issue or too trivial to report.”

Most of the crimes that are reported to police, meanwhile,  are not solved , at least based on an FBI measure known as the clearance rate . That’s the share of cases each year that are closed, or “cleared,” through the arrest, charging and referral of a suspect for prosecution, or due to “exceptional” circumstances such as the death of a suspect or a victim’s refusal to cooperate with a prosecution. In 2022, police nationwide cleared 36.7% of violent crimes that were reported to them and 12.1% of the property crimes that came to their attention.

Which crimes are most likely to be reported to police? Which are most likely to be solved?

Around eight-in-ten motor vehicle thefts (80.9%) were reported to police in 2022, making them by far the most commonly reported property crime tracked by BJS. Household burglaries and trespassing offenses were reported to police at much lower rates (44.9% and 41.2%, respectively), while personal theft/larceny and other types of theft were only reported around a quarter of the time.

Among violent crimes – excluding homicide, which BJS doesn’t track – robbery was the most likely to be reported to law enforcement in 2022 (64.0%). It was followed by aggravated assault (49.9%), simple assault (36.8%) and rape/sexual assault (21.4%).

The list of crimes  cleared  by police in 2022 looks different from the list of crimes reported. Law enforcement officers were generally much more likely to solve violent crimes than property crimes, according to the FBI.

The most frequently solved violent crime tends to be homicide. Police cleared around half of murders and nonnegligent manslaughters (52.3%) in 2022. The clearance rates were lower for aggravated assault (41.4%), rape (26.1%) and robbery (23.2%).

When it comes to property crime, law enforcement agencies cleared 13.0% of burglaries, 12.4% of larcenies/thefts and 9.3% of motor vehicle thefts in 2022.

Are police solving more or fewer crimes than they used to?

Nationwide clearance rates for both violent and property crime are at their lowest levels since at least 1993, the FBI data shows.

Police cleared a little over a third (36.7%) of the violent crimes that came to their attention in 2022, down from nearly half (48.1%) as recently as 2013. During the same period, there were decreases for each of the four types of violent crime the FBI tracks:

• Police cleared 52.3% of reported murders and nonnegligent homicides in 2022, down from 64.1% in 2013.
• They cleared 41.4% of aggravated assaults, down from 57.7%.
• They cleared 26.1% of rapes, down from 40.6%.
• They cleared 23.2% of robberies, down from 29.4%.

The pattern is less pronounced for property crime. Overall, law enforcement agencies cleared 12.1% of reported property crimes in 2022, down from 19.7% in 2013. The clearance rate for burglary didn’t change much, but it fell for larceny/theft (to 12.4% in 2022 from 22.4% in 2013) and motor vehicle theft (to 9.3% from 14.2%).

Note: This is an update of a post originally published on Nov. 20, 2020.

• Criminal Justice

John Gramlich is an associate director at Pew Research Center

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E-Books Still No Match for Printed Books

E-books vs. printed books.

Happy World Book Day! While UNESCO's General Conference probably thought of ink on paper when it first celebrated the event in 1995, some 21st century book lovers have moved onto enjoying the pastime in the electronic form. In the following chart, we compare just how popular e-books are versus those in print.

According to data from Statista’s Market Insights: Media & Advertising , e-book penetration still trails that of printed books in the vast majority of countries around the world. In the United States for example, 20 percent of the population are estimated to have purchased an e-book last year, compared to 30 percent who bought a printed book. China is the only country of those studied that saw the opposite trend, with only 24 percent of people having bought a printed book in the 12 months prior to the survey, while around 27 percent of people bought an e-book in that time frame.

Looking at forecasts for the book market on a worldwide scale, Statista analysts predict that while e-books have grown in popularity, they will not be the final nail in the coffin of printed books but rather a complementary product that should ultimately benefit the publishing industry.

Description

This chart shows the estimated share of the population in selected countries that purchased an e-book / a printed book in 2023.

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