Number facts
How would you like to be able to see into the future? If so, you should
be a statistician (stat uh [stihsh]{.smallcaps} uhn) when you grow up!
The word statistician means “a person who works with statistics (stuh
[tihs]{.smallcaps} tihks).” The word statistics simply means “number
facts.” And part of a statistician’s job is to use number facts to “see”
into the future I
How? Well, suppose your class is going to hold an election for class
president. You could go to each person in the class and ask them whom
they are going to vote for.
You might find that ten people plan to vote for Rick, seventeen for
Kathy, and thirty-three for Jan. You’d be pretty sure that Jan would
win. The numbers have shown you the future!
Asking questions of people is one way of gathering statistics. Of
course, most of the work statisticians do is a great deal more
complicated.
For example, a town might want to know if a new school is needed. A
statistician could find out by gathering information on the number of
children who will start school in coming years, the number of new
families with children that may move into town, and so on. Working with
these number facts, the statistician will be able to tell the community
how many schoolrooms will be needed over the next few years.
Statisticians work with government, labor, business, industry,
hospitals, laboratories, newspapers—in fact, just about everywhere!
Their work is extremely important for all of us. Many of the things they
find out about help us to make decisions about the things we do, buy,
and use every day!
Statisticians are people who use numbers to plan for the future. The
charts these statisticians are working with show how many people will be
living in different parts of a city in years to come.
