Many economic, social, environmental, and political policies, as well as clinical trials used to investigate a newly manufactured drug, are based on the use of appropriate statistical methods.

Statisticians and data scientists deal with the study of data that arise in scientific research, social and economic investigations, in business and industry, and in government work. The applied statistician designs experiments and sampling plans, explores and analyzes data, builds models from observed data, and interprets the results of the data analysis.