The
History of statistics can be said to start around 1749 although, over time, there have been changes to the interpretation of the word
statistics. In early times, the meaning was restricted to information about
states. This was later extended to include all collections of information of all types, and later still it was extended to include the analysis and interpretation of such data. In modern terms, "statistics" means both sets of collected information, as in
national accounts and
temperature records, and analytical work which requires
statistical inference.