Applied statistics is the use of statistical techniques to solve real-world data analysis problems. In contrast to the pure study of mathematical statistics, applied statistics is typically used by and for non-mathematicians in fields ranging from social science to business. Indeed, in the big data era, applied statistics has become important for deriving insights and guiding decision-making in virtually every industry.
The increased reliance on data and statistics to help understand our world has made the careful application of these techniques even more essential; too often, statistics can be used erroneously or even misleadingly when methods of analysis are not properly connected to research questions. Thus, a major aspect of applied statistics is the accurate communication of findings for a non-technical audience, including specifics about data sources, relevance to the problem at hand, and degrees of uncertainty.
That said, the statistical approaches used in this field are the same as in the study of mathematical statistics. Rigorous use of statistical hypothesis testing, statistical inference, linear regression techniques, and analysis of variance (ANOVA) are core to the work of applied statistics. And, as in other areas of data science, Python programming and R programming are often used to analyze large datasets when Microsoft Excel is not sufficiently powerful.‎