Statistics is the most widely used quantitative method in business.
It is concerned with extracting the best possible information from data in order to aid decision making. It is often applied to sales forecasting, quality control and market research. Data used in business include population censuses, opinion polls, consumer data bases, and sales and demand data. The role of the Statistician is to determine, for a given question, the type of data that is needed, the way it should be collected and how it should be analysed in order to best answer that question. Employment opportunites The research and development units of some larger corporations, larger hospitals and health departments employ statistical consultants.