Multivariate statistics is a form of statistics encompassing the simultaneous observation and analysis of more than one outcome variable. The application of multivariate statistics is multivariate analysis. Methods of bivariate statistics, for example simple linear regression and correlation, are NOT special cases of multivariate statistics because only one outcome variable is involved.
Multivariate statistics concerns understanding the different aims and background of each of the different forms of multivariate analysis, and how they relate to each other. The practical implementation of multivariate statistics to a particular problem may involve several types of univariate and multivariate analysis in order to understand the relationships between variables and their relevance to the actual problem being studied.
In addition, multivariate statistics is concerned with multivariate probability distributions, in terms of both:
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- how these can be used to represent the distributions of observed data;
- how they can be used as part of statistical inference, particularly where several different quantities are of interest to the same analysis.
Read more about Multivariate Statistics: Types of Analysis, Important Probability Distributions, History, Software & Tools
Famous quotes containing the word statistics:
“He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts—for support rather than illumination.”
—Andrew Lang (1844–1912)