Numbers and data can provide great insights into society. There are many potential uses, the census can inform governments plans to build hospitals and schools, managers can track their employee’s work and those donating to charities can track how their money is spent.

Almost every significant decision made in society is informed to some degree by statistics, even if on a very basic level. As the information economy expands, the breadth and depth of the data available has exploded; this has made analysing it ever more complex. This complexity has increased the importance of statistical understanding, as statistics can reveal a lot but can easily mislead if analysed incorrectly.

Statisticians have the skills and knowledge to collect, sort, analyse and communicate data accurately. Questions they understand the importance of include is the data representative of the population being studied? Were enough people or events surveyed (referred to as the ‘sample size’)? What correlations are meaningful? How confident should you be of the results of a statistical test?

But statistics isn’t just for the experts, an understanding of the field's fundamental concepts, such as forecasting, probability, modelling or significance, will help you understand the world around you.