07 Descriptive Statistics

Definition:

Statistical tools used in Business Management to summarize and present statistical data in a user-friendly way.

Purpose:

To enable managers and decision makers to interpret and analyze the data more easily and to support them in making non-biased (rational), objective, evidence-based, and well-informed decisions.

Examples:

• Averages, i.e., mean, mode, and median measures of the average values in a data set

• Graphical tools, such as bar charts, pie charts, and infographics to visually represent the data, and

• Statistical measures of dispersion or spread of numbers in a data set, such as quartiles and standard deviation.

The IB syllabus refers to:

1. Mean

2. Mode

3. Median

4. Bar charts

5. Pie charts

6. Infographics

7. Quartiles

8. Standard deviation