Statistics is the science of collecting, organizing, and extracting meaningful information from data. Statistics is widely used to analyze data, such as a government census or weather reports. Let's perform a statistical exercise to calculate the average heart rate of all humans on earth. In statistics, all the individuals or objects being studied are called population. As it would not be possible to reach out and measure each and everyone’s heart rate, only a subset of people or a portion of the population is drawn. This is called a sample. The average heart rate of the sample is called a statistic—a numerical measurement that describes the property of the sample. This method of systematically collecting data from individuals and summarizing is called descriptive statistics. Finally, the sample statistic can be extrapolated to determine an average heart rate or a characteristic of the population, also known as a parameter. This systematic method of drawing inferences from the sample data and predicting unknown characteristics of a population is called inferential statistics.