Statistician

Job overview
Statistics is the science of collecting, processing and interpreting masses of numbers which represent facts or measurements.

What do people do in this occupation?
Academic / research statisticians
Academic and research statisticians train students and carry out statistical research in a chosen specialised field.

New theories are developed and existing theories revised, providing the theoretical foundations upon which the applied statistician depends.

Basic research in statistical theory is mainly conducted at universities.

Applied statisticians?
Applied statisticians are concerned with the problems of data interpretation faced in the commercial, industrial and scientific world.

They assist in planning procedures to collect and analyse information and work in such diverse fields as finance, economics, engineering, medicine, psychology, astronomy, chemistry, life insurance and agriculture.

They are involved in the design of sampling procedures and experiments and are able to calculate the reliability of the conclusions.

Many other professionals such as actuaries, operations researchers and economists require a sound knowledge of statistics.

What kinds of people are suitable for this career?
Statisticians should have mathematical aptitude, be able to reason logically and have a good approach to analysing problems.

They should also be able to interact with, and present their findings in an understandable fashion, to a variety of people who are not skilled in statistical matters.

Statisticians usually will be required to deal with large data sets whose processing requires the help of a computer.

They should therefore be thoroughly acquainted with computer operation.

What qualifications are needed?
A BSc degree with majors in mathematics and statistics, plus postgraduate studies in statistics.