The area of statistics that provides descriptions of data, may it be samples or the population. This includes graphical representations and numerical indicators. No information is inferred from samples about the population, as in inferential statistics.
Descriptive statistics is the process of using and analyzing statistics that quantitatively describe or summarize features of a collection of information.
Descriptive statistics is distinguished from statistical-inference in that descriptive statistics aims to summarize sampled data rather than use the data to learn about the population that the sample of data represents. Hence, descriptive statistics, unlike inferential statistics, is not developed on the basis of probability theory.
Measures used to describe a data set include—
measures of central tendency, such as mean, median, or mode, and
measures of variability, such as standard deviation (or variance), minimum, maximum, kurtosis, or skewness.
