Difference between Descriptive and Inferential statistics Last Updated : 04 Mar, 2025 Comments Improve Suggest changes Like Article Like Report Statistics is a key field that helps us make sense of data through collection, analysis, and presentation. It plays an important role in many areas, from business to healthcare, by guiding decision-making and drawing conclusions. This process is made easier with the help of two main branches of statistics: descriptive and inferential. Descriptive StatisticsDescriptive statistics refers to the process of summarizing and analyzing data to describe its main features in a clear and meaningful way. It is used to present raw data in a form that makes it easier to understand and interpret. Descriptive statistics involves both graphical representations (such as charts and plots) and numerical measures to summarize data effectively. Unlike inferential statistics, which makes predictions about a population based on a sample, Descriptive statistics is applied to data that is already known.Inferential StatisticsInferential statistics involves using data from a sample to make predictions, generalizations, or conclusions about a larger population. Unlike descriptive statistics, which simply summarizes known data, inferential statistics makes inferences or draws conclusions that go beyond the available data. It uses probability theory to estimate population parameters and test hypotheses. By working with a sample, inferential statistics allows researchers to make informed decisions without having to gather data from an entire population. Difference between Descriptive and Inferential statisticsDescriptive StatisticsInferential StatisticsIt gives information about raw data which describes the data in some manner.It makes inferences about the population using data drawn from the population.It helps in organizing, analyzing, and to present data in a meaningful manner.It allows us to compare data, and make hypotheses and predictions.It is used to describe a situation.It is used to explain the chance of occurrence of an event.It explains already known data and is limited to a sample or population having a small size.It attempts to reach the conclusion about the population.Examples include: mean, median, mode, range, variance, histograms, pie charts.Examples include: confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, regression models, p-values.Limited to presenting and analyzing known data.Allows predictions and conclusions that go beyond the data at hand.Used for describing trends, organizing data for presentation.Used for predicting trends, testing hypotheses, generalizing data from sample to population.It can be achieved with the help of charts, graphs, tables, etc.It can be achieved by probability.Related article Introduction of Statistics and its TypesStatistics in MathsWhat is Statistical Analysis Comment More infoAdvertise with us Next Article Difference between Descriptive and Inferential statistics 22dhanshreemali Follow Improve Article Tags : Engineering Mathematics Difference Between Similar Reads Difference between Descriptive Research and Experimental Research Descriptive research is a method that focuses on detailing and explaining the characteristics of the subject being studied. It aims to answer questions about who, what, where, and when regarding the topic. On the other hand, experimental research is a scientific method used to test a theory or hypot 3 min read Difference Between Machine Learning and Statistics Machine learning and statistics are like two sides of the same coin both working with data but in slightly different ways. Machine learning is often said to be "an evolution of statistics" because it builds on statistical concepts to handle larger, more complex data problems with a focus on predicti 2 min read Difference between t-test and ANOVA When comparing the t-test and ANOVA, both are used in statistics to test hypotheses related to group means, but they serve different purposes depending on the number of groups. A t-test is designed to compare the means of two groups, such as the effectiveness of two teaching methods or the sales per 8 min read Introduction of Statistical Data Distributions A statistical data distribution is a function that shows the possible values of a variable and how frequently they occur. It provides a mathematical description of the data’s behavior which indicate where most data points are concentrated and how they are spread out. Distributions can be represented 5 min read Student's t-distribution in Statistics As we know normal distribution assumes two important characteristics about the dataset: a large sample size and knowledge of the population standard deviation. However, if we do not meet these two criteria, and we have a small sample size or an unknown population standard deviation, then we use the 10 min read Like