On reading this title, you might be asking yourself, ‘what even is a statistician, and how does their work affect my life?’ To this, we would tell you that statisticians affect all of our lives this is because a statistician is someone who gathers data and then displays it. They make sense of the information and facts and organize it neatly, sharing their findings in the clearest way. We see it everywhere, from sales figures to side effects on prescriptions, to chances we will win the lottery. Anyone can make an impact with a statistician career.
Simply put; Statistics are sets of mathematical equations that we use to analyze everything. Statistics are a science and refer to the art of learning and studying data.
“As a discipline, it is concerned with the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, as well as the effective communication and presentation of results relying on data.”
Statistics help to keep us informed and up to date on a huge range of things. Everything about our world today can be derived down to stats and facts, and in this increasingly data-driven world, statistics are king and a statistician career can be very rewarding.
Weather
One great example of why statistics are so important and are used in our day-to-day lives can be found by simply looking up. The weather – the thing we check every summer hoping for heat and check every winter begging for snow. If you take a minute to think about how crazy it is that we can find that information in just a few short clicks by going on our phones or watching the news, you will realize how immense the power of data has become. So the next time you check the chances of rain or shine, be sure to remember who helped that information get there.
Insurance
Even more importantly, we actually use statistics to protect ourselves and our belongings. When you take out insurance, whether it be medical, home, or car, data is used and analyzed by businesses to calculate the risk of giving it to us. We wouldn’t be able to do this without statisticians analyzing real-life statistics to help us.
The Coronavirus Pandemic
One way that statistics have become a huge part of all of our lives in a way they never quite were before is with the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic. Now every day, hundreds of thousands of people turn the news on each day, waiting to see those stats, constantly checking to see what country is doing well, what country isn’t, what vaccine is most effective, and which one isn’t, and so much more. Statistics have been vital to the way our governments have provided their citizens with information on the pandemic. Without them, it would be chaos, from the lack of information and guessing. Fake news would take over, and no one would be sure of the facts, and therefore people would be confused and not know how to act.
Politics
Politics play a huge role in our lives. They make the rules that govern everything we do day to day. Governments use statistics in order to help them make decisions, they also use social science for research into communities, and this also leans heavily on statistics. The election polls that we use to predict who will win are made from the research of stats; here, statistics are used to help determine who will be in charge of our government.
Product testing
Statistics are also used in what is called quality testing. When a company produces their new and exciting product, it is important that they give the customers the best possible option. Companies need to run tests and reviews so that they can know for sure that their product is at the best level that it can be. They need to know nothing will go wrong with it and that there are no faults with it.
Because big companies can have so many products released, it would be impossible for all of the products to be tested individually. This is where statistics come into play and make a role for a statistician career. They are used in order to speed up this process.
Trading and finance
The financial market also relies heavily on statistics as this is how they figure out who and where is the best choice for investment. Here we can see that statistics play directly into who profits and who loses out, and it takes a highly skilled statistician to figure all that out.
Disease
One of the key ways that statistics are also used is in disease control. Doctors use statistics so that they can predict diseases and how they will impact us. For example, if you look at the percentage of people who are ill or have some sort of disease, then you can see how the illness is affecting their bodies.
Statistics for students
When it comes to picking what subject you want to study or the career path you want to take, it can be an incredibly daunting time. It can be scary looking forward and figuring out what’s the right choice for you. No matter how much your family or teachers or friends might think they know what’s best for you, this is a time in your life where you have to make the decision for yourself. Going off what we have already made clear, we would hope that statistics would be one of your top choices; click here to find out more information.
Students study statistics because they want to learn and help in a huge range of different job areas for their ultimate statistician career. One of the great things about studying statistics is that you will learn a huge range of skills that can be applied to a career in statistics or any other area you may choose to go into. Being able to study such a vast and intelligent subject gives students the opportunity to really develop their critical thinking skills and logical thinking.
Some of the skills that you will be taught include;
- A variety of analytical research methods
- How to interpret results as well as how to draw conclusions and recommendations from data
- How to be able to identify different data patterns and how to manipulate them
- How to get better at problem-solving and develop your logical thinking skills
- How to apply abstract mathematical concepts to practical problems.
- Communication skills that you can apply to colleagues as well as with your data results
- You will learn presentation skills and get better at speaking confidently in front of people to do this
- You will learn information management, how to organize information, how to put importance on certain parts of it, and how to share this information in the most effective way
- You will get much better at organization and planning; you will learn how to properly organize your time to work, by seeing what needs doing first, this will help you to properly prepare information,
- You will get better at teamwork, you will learn how to work with others effectively, and learn to access who has what skills and how they can be used to work as part of a group
Studying statistics can be fulfilling and rewarding. However, If you find that when choosing your main area to study, you don’t think your interests rely on statistics alone, you could decide to minor in another subject with specialization in statistics. The option to do this sort of course split is most popular with students who study psychology, business, related sciences, biology, and sociology.
It may come as no surprise that the most common employer of statistics students is usually the government. Statisticians then work for the government in a range of different departments to help analyze and share data findings. Some other common fields of work for statisticians are;
- Financial and banking companies
- Insurance and accountancy firms
- IT companies
- Logistics and transport companies
- The NHS and private health companies
- Market research organizations
- Not-for-profit organizations and think tanks
- Pharmaceutical industries
- Universities and other education bodies
Postgraduate life
It has always been known as a particularly successful course to study with Fortune magazine ranked statistics and biostatistics among the top graduate degrees based on salary, growth, and job satisfaction. It is also, of course, a relevant factor that Statisticians are also very well paid. Statisticians made a median salary of $91,160 in 2019. With the best-paid 25 percent making $118,790 that year, and the lowest-paid 25 percent still made $68,480. Some of the best cities to work in the US to get paid well for being a statistician are;
- Connecticut, Bridgeport
- California, San Francisco
- Massachusetts, Boston
- California, San Jose
- North Carolina, Raleigh
- New Jersey
- Idaho
- Maryland
After all, a part of what makes it such a great course to take is the amount of opportunity in a statistician career that its graduates are presented with after completion. There is no lack in demand for graduates specializing in statistics. In this day and age and with unemployment rising, there is such competition for well-paying stimulating jobs; studying this subject is sure to put you in the right direction and give you the best chance at being able to head straight into a statistician career.
