Statistics

Statistics is a type of data analysis which practice includes the planning, summarizing, and interpreting of observations of a system possibly followed by predicting or forecasting of future events based on a mathematical model of the system being observed. Statistics is a branch of applied mathematics specifically in the area of statistical theory which uses probability theory in the mathematical models.

Software

Modern statistics is supported by computers to perform some of the very large and complex calculations required.

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Whole branches of statistics have been made possible by computing, for example neural networks.

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The computer revolution has implications for the future of statistics, with a new emphasis on 'experimental' statistics.

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Statistical packages in common use include:

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• Statgraphics Centurion XV
• S programming language, and notably its freely available counterpart - R programming language
• Statistics Online Computational Resource (UCLA)
• SAS programming language
• SPSS
• Stata
• StatSoft STATISTICA
• Minitab
• Mondrian (Software for Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA))
• MATLAB
• GNU Octave
• GNU PSPP
• MS Excel, and various add-ins
• OpenOffice.org Calc
• ROOT
• Cytel Studio
• Mathematica