How does Descriptive and Inferential Statistics work hand in hand in data analysis?

Both descriptive and inferential statistics are used together in analyzing data. According to Descriptive and Inferential Statistics (2018), descriptive statistics refers to the analysis of data with the assistance of expressions, summary, or illustrations in such a manner that the patterns formed are derived from the data. Descriptive data makes it possible to analyze raw data, which would otherwise be challenging to visualize, especially if the information is quite large. As such, data is presented in a meaningful and simple manner. This is achieved through the measurement of the central tendency and the measures of spread. Nevertheless, descriptive statistics does not allow conclusions to make on the information beyond the analyzed data. It is also forbidden to make conclusions based on the hypotheses made. Inferential statistics, on the other hand, are forms of techniques, which enable the samples of the descriptive statistics to be made. They allow the users to make several generalizations regarding the populations from which the samples under study are derived(). For this reason, descriptive statistics must collect accurate samples to represent populations, through the process of sampling. For this reason, inferential statistics arise from the fact of the presence of the sampling error as a sample, in most cases, fail to be a perfect representation of the population. Approaches used for inferential statistics in any data are therefore, test of the hypotheses and the estimation of parameters. Inferential statistics are used, therefore, to make conclusions and draw predictions of observational errors.

Conclusively, descriptive statistics explains the features of a sample of data quantitatively whereas inferential statistics make inferences of the population data from the samples taken. Descriptive statistics presents description regarding a sample whereas inferential statistics presents predictions and inferences of a larger population. Whereas descriptive data defines the features of a data, inferential statistics provides such details as observations, hypotheses and confidence intervals.

Reference

Descriptive and Inferential Statistics . (2018). Retrieved from https://statistics.laerd.com/statistical-guides/descriptive-inferential-statistics.php