The Importance of Statistics in Our Society

In today's world we are faced with situations everyday where statistics can be applied. Statistics can be used to determine the potential outcome of thousands of things where the human mind alone wouldn't be able to. Statistics benefits all of us because we are able to predict the future based on data we have previously gathered. Being able to predict the future not only changes our lifestyle but also helps us be more efficient and effective.

With statistics we can determine how we will live a year from now, ten years from now, and so on. This is important because if we didn't have data from the past to look upon, we wouldn't be able to prolong our existence by avoiding recurring climate changes like hurricanes and tsunamis and such. Things like these make our lives easier and help us make educated decisions based on what we already know because of statistics. A good example is that based on data we have gathered from the past, we know that it is extremely likely that in specific parts of the world it will snow during winter and because we know this, we can prepare by having warm clothes ready and the proper equipment to deal with the snow.

Statistics are used all over the world. They can be applied in almost any situation and can always help. They are used in explaining group behavior of organisms, marketing research, and the list goes on and on. A good example is how scientists observe the behavior of groups of animals. Scientists can record data from a group of elephants and determine that a certain percentage of elephant herds will defend themselves from predators while the other percentage may run away. This kind of data can help scientists predict the elephant's lifestyle and culture.

Statistics affects our daily life every day. Researchers use statistics to advertise their products which in turn we the consumer purchase. The price of the products we buy are determined upon statistics which show the demand for the product at that point in time and because of these statistics, we the consumers pay a certain amount of money to buy the product. Another example of how statistics affect me is in school. Every year statistics are looked over and the curriculums for the classes I take are based on data collected in the past. The curriculums are modified and help the learning process.

With these statistics we are able to modify things to make them more effective. This is why statistics is important in the first place - we can improve our lifestyle with statistics. If we know how people have lived in the past and how we have evolved, we can prepare for the future and live longer and evolve more effectively. We can tell from data gathered in the 90's that cigarette smoking in the 10^th grade has been slowly declining over the years (1). From this we can assume that something is being done correctly to bring the statistics down. Another example is that in 1975, the USA started paying more attention to the spousal homicide rates. The USA took the proper precautions to help lower these rates and it worked (2). Since 1975, the yearly spousal homicide rate has gone down from 2300 to 800. Because of statistics, people were able to make predictions and help save lives.

In conclusion, statistics are a major staple of our world today. They are used in practically any situation and help improve our overall lifestyle. Statistics change the way we think about tomorrow and the way we live today and without them.

Sources:

Wikipedia's "Statistics"

Statistics in Society: "The Arithmetic of Politics"