The word “statistics” comes from the Latin word “status”, which means a certain state, state of affairs.
Statistical practice began in ancient times with the population count. The earliest evidence of this is in China and has more than 4 thousand years of history. In ancient Rome, in the qualifications (censuses), in addition to counting the population (only free citizens), some elements of their property were also noted. This data was used for military purposes and taxation.
In the second half of the IX century in the chronicles of ancient Russia there are references to the collection of tribute. The main object of taxation is agriculture, and especially agriculture. Already to the X-XI centuries. there are many accounting data characterizing the emergence and development of urban settlements, which were created mainly on water trade routes (the presence of temples, churches, monasteries, fortifications, residential buildings made of wood and stone).
In the XV-XVII centuries. accounting and statistical data were already issued by scribe and census books. These documents are the first experiments of territorial-statistical descriptions (material on the situation of peasants, detailed description of cities, churches, etc.). They were compiled periodically. In the censuses of the xvii century. there were data allowing to divide the population by sex, marital status and age groups.
The organization of vital registration of the population is associated with the activities of Peter I. The “Spiritual Regulations” of 1722 ordered the priests of the Orthodox Church to register acts of civil status, i.e. births, deaths and marriages. In the metric books at baptism, records were made of the day, month and year of birth of the child, indicating the parents and godparents, as well as the day, month and year of baptism. When registering death, the day, month and year of death were indicated. The age of the deceased began to be registered in 1726, at the same time this information began to be sent to the military collegium. Data on the number of births and deaths in church parishes once every 4 months were sent to the bishop’s orders, and from there to the synod. The state procedure for registering acts of civil status in Russia was introduced earlier than in Western countries (in Norway since 1735, Sweden – 1749, France – 1806, England – 1838).
Statistical science has a rich history. At first, statistics was interpreted as the science of the sights of the productive forces. It was associated with their history and geography. Descriptive direction prevailed here.
With the development of productive forces, simple accounting operations became more complicated and began to include elements of the analysis of certain phenomena in order to establish certain regularities in them. Thus, gradually, a branch of knowledge arose, which later received the term “statistics”. Its foundations were laid by the works of William Petty, in particular, his famous “Political Arithmetic” (1683). A significant contribution to the development of statistical science was made by J. Graunt, who collected information about the dead in London over a number of years and compiled a table of mortality in the form of a number of relative numbers surviving to a particular age. The manifestation of a certain regularity in statistical numbers was realized only in the middle of the XVIII century by Süsmilch, who saw in this regularity the manifestation of the “divine order” (for example, in a stable ratio of numbers of boys and girls among newborns 21:20).
Another source of statistical science, to which statistics owes its very name, was the work of German scientists in state studies, who began teaching this course at Universities in Germany at the end of the XVII century.
State studies in Russia was expressed in a number of works by M. Lomonosov. At the end of the XVIII century. in Russia appeared the first theoretical works on statistics, in particular the works of Bernoulli, devoted to the analysis of mortality and marriages.
Thus, statistics were formed from elements of political arithmetic and state studies. From political arithmetic, statistics received a comprehensive analysis of the quantitative characteristics of mass phenomena in order to know their regularities, and from state science – a system of quantitative description of socio-economic phenomena.
The further development of statistics as a science was characterized by the improvement of methods for collecting and processing data necessary for the analysis of various mass socio-economic phenomena. In the XIX century, a great contribution to the development of statistics was made by the works of Russian scientists D. Zhuravsky, A. Chuprov, Y. Yanson and others.
Statistics is a social science that studies the quantitative side of qualitatively defined mass socio-economic phenomena and the laws of their development in specific conditions of place and time.
Statistics study:
mass social phenomena with the help of statistical indicators (population size, volume of implementation of the plan) and their dynamics (changes in the standard of living of the population); the quantitative side of social phenomena and gives quantitative, digital coverage of social phenomena; the quantitative side of social phenomena in inseparable connection with their qualitative content; characterizes the phenomena of social life in specific spatial and temporal boundaries; quantitative connections between social phenomena using a special methodology (mathematical methods, correlation-regression analysis, etc.).
The theoretical basis of statistics is the provisions of socio-economic theory. Based on the knowledge of the provisions of economic theory, statistics analyzes specific forms of manifestation of the category, assesses the size of phenomena, develops methods for their study and analysis.
Currently, the term “statistics” is used in several meanings:
1) statistics are understood as a set of information about certain phenomena (industrial statistics, labor statistics);
2) the process of obtaining information with their subsequent development, i.e. practical activities of statistical bodies;
3) science, which sets out the methods of statistical research and the construction of statistical indicators in relation to a variety of social phenomena.
The main sections of statistical science are:
1) the general theory of statistics, which sets out the general principles and methods of statistics. It develops a conceptual apparatus and a system of categories of statistics, considers methods for collecting, summarizing, summarizing and analyzing statistical data, i.e. the general methodology of statistical research;
2) socio-economic statistics, which develops methods for building a system of indicators of the level and development of society;
3) sectoral statistics, which studies certain areas of social phenomena or individual branches of the national economy: demographic statistics (population statistics), statistics of industry, transport, trade.
Consequently, the subject of the study of statistics are various social and economic phenomena, the study of which is associated with the quantitative characteristic and identification of their inherent patterns. Statistics studies its subject with the help of certain categories. In statistics, there are several such concepts.
The phenomena studied by statistics, as a rule, consist of many individual elements and facts. These sets of units with different features make up the so-called statistical aggregates (the totality of the population, the totality of the energy produced). A statistical aggregate is a set of socio-economic objects or phenomena of social life, united by a certain qualitative basis, a common connection, but differing from each other by individual signs.
The subject of the study of statistics are various kinds of statistical (mass) aggregates. Aggregates are characterized by a number of features:
(1) they cover the mass of units;
2) the units included in them have features that vary, i.e. vary from one unit of the aggregate to another.
Therefore, in statistics, first of all, the total value of the feature or the total for the totality is determined.
3) the patterns identified for a particular population are revealed due to the action of the “law of large numbers”. The essence of this law lies in the fact that, as the number of observations increases, the influence of random causes that determine the magnitude of the feature in individual units of the population is mutually extinguished in the summary characteristics of the population, i.e. in the latter there is an action of the main causes, which determine the pattern.
The unit of the aggregate is the primary element of the statistical system, which is the carrier of the signs to be registered. The specificity of social processes is most fully expressed in the system of statistical indicators.
Statistical indicator is one of the basic concepts of statistics, which means a generalized quantitative characteristic of socio-economic phenomena and processes in their qualitative certainty in the conditions of a particular place and time (population, output, commodity products, level of labor productivity, cost reduction).
A system of statistical indicators is a set of statistical indicators that reflect the relationships that exist between phenomena.
The concept of a sign is interrelated with the concept of an indicator. If the indicator expresses the unity of the qualitative and quantitative side of the phenomenon, then the signs characterize the distinctive features of the objects of the statistical system.
A feature is a qualitative feature of a unit of totality, that is, it is a property, characteristic features or features of objects (phenomena) that can be characterized by a number of statistical quantities. Signs can be quantitative, qualitative, territorial and temporal (dynamic). The feature system is used to compile a program of statistical observation and subsequent grouping of materials. For example, in population statistics, the characteristics are gender, age, profession, education, etc.
Statistical regularity is one of the forms of manifestation of the universal connection of phenomena in nature and society (first revealed in natural science as opposed to the concept of dynamic regularity, when strictly defined values of any factors always correspond to certain values of values dependent on these factors). The occurrence of a single event in a statistical pattern is associated with a known probability (fluctuations in the norms of production in individual workers).
The sampling method in statistics makes it possible to judge the entire (general) population by studying a limited number of units of a population.
To characterize the various phenomena of social life, statistics uses the method of dialectics, i.e. studies phenomena interrelated in development, reveals the new, progressive that originates in the existing and determines the directions of development (the dynamics of labor productivity, the dependence of labor productivity on the volume of production and labor costs, determines the impact of labor productivity growth on the implementation of the production plan and on the level of production costs), uses, inherent only in her, research techniques. Specific techniques of statistics find their expression in the following 4 stages of statistical research:
1) Scientifically organized mass observation, with the help of which information is collected about a separate population (mass of phenomena). Mass surveillance is the basis of statistics.
2) Grouping and summary of the material, i.e. dismembering the entire mass of cases into homogeneous groups, counting the results for each group and formatting the results in the form of a statistical table. Groupings make it possible to distinguish from the composition of the system and separately study phenomena of different quality, to show the features of phenomena.
3) Processing of statistical data – calculation on the basis of absolute values obtained during the summary, indicators reflecting the characteristics of hotel groups, summarizing data by groups or characterizing the relationships and relationships between groups. They are defined in the form of averages, relative values and indices.
4) Analysis of data to obtain economically justified conclusions, which are presented in text form.
The great importance of statistics in modern society is explained by the fact that it is one of the most basic means by which the state keeps records in the national economy.
Statistics, operational-technical and accounting form a unified accounting system. Each type of accounting has its own specific features and functions.
Operational and technical accounting provides urgent information about all the facts in the activities of the enterprise, necessary for the current operational management of the enterprise. An example of this accounting is the entries in the timesheet of turnout or non-attendance at work of employees of the enterprise; accounting of the work performed during the day.
Accounting carries out a continuous and continuous reflection of all economic operations related to the movement of material and monetary assets of the enterprise in the process of production and circulation (receiving fuel from suppliers, transferring it to the warehouse, paying suppliers’ bills, transferring fuel to production). Accounting exercises monetary control over the activities of the enterprise, contributes to the safety of the property of the enterprise.
Statistical accounting, in turn, using data from various types of accounting, receives a system of generalizing indicators that characterize all aspects of the socio-economic life of society.
The objectives of statistics are:
1) identification of the implementation of national economic plans for each enterprise, industry, the entire national economy (not only establishing the fact of implementation or non-fulfillment of the plan, but also revealing the reasons that caused deviations from the plan, generalization of best practices);
2) accurate and verified statistical data are necessary for the preparation of current and future plans;
(3) statistics produce and analyse data over a long period of time for planning and forecasting purposes;
4) statistics reveal a specific measure of the efficiency of social production.
The development of statistics is directly related to the development of the productive forces of society. V. Lenin paid great attention to the development of statistics in Russia. On July 25, 1918, he signed the “Regulation on State Statistics”. In accordance with it, the CSO was formed. The CSO was responsible for conducting national censuses, maintaining sectoral statistics, managing the statistics of departments, and disseminating statistical knowledge.
In their activities, the state statistics bodies of the Republic of Belarus are guided by the Law on State Statistics, which entered into force on March 3, 1997.
The entire system of statistical bodies is built on the territorial-production principle and consists of 2 parts: state statistics bodies and departmental statistics bodies.
The main task of the state statistics bodies is to collect, check, develop and submit to the Government, the Presidential Administration, the Parliament scientifically based statistical data characterizing the implementation of national economic plans, the growth of welfare, culture, education in the Republic of Belarus, the development of health care, the use of natural labor and material resources in the national economy, the analysis of statistical data, the publication of the results of the implementation of plans, the preparation and publication of statistical collections, journals and bulletins, preparation of new forms of statistical reporting; methodological support of statistical work and preparation of forecasts for the development of the national economy of the country, etc. Departmental statistics bodies collect, check and analyze statistical data characterizing the state of affairs in the industry.
By the Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus of 02.02.2000 No. 35 on August 23, the Day of State Statistics Workers is celebrated in the Republic of Belarus.