Statistic vs. Anecdote — What's the Difference?

A statistic (singular) or sample statistic is any quantity computed from values in a sample which is considered for a statistical purpose. Statistical purposes include estimating a population parameter, describing a sample, or evaluating a hypothesis.

An anecdote is a brief, revealing account of an individual person or an incident: "a story with a point," such as to communicate an abstract idea about a person, place, or thing through the concrete details of a short narrative or to characterize by delineating a specific quirk or trait. Occasionally humorous, anecdotes differ from jokes because their primary purpose is not simply to provoke laughter but to reveal a truth more general than the brief tale itself.Anecdotes may be real or fictional; the anecdotal digression is a common feature of literary works and even oral anecdotes typically involve subtle exaggeration and dramatic shape designed to entertain the listener.

A fact or piece of data obtained from a study of a large quantity of numerical data

A short amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person

Another term for statistical

A short account of an interesting or humorous incident.

A numerical piece of information.

Pl. an·ec·dotes or an·ec·do·ta (-dōtə) Secret or hitherto undivulged particulars of history or biography.

A calculated numerical value (such as the sample mean) that characterizes some aspect of a sample set of data, and that is often meant to estimate the true value of a corresponding parameter (such as the population mean) in an underlying population.

A short account of a real incident or person, often humorous or interesting.

One viewed solely as a piece of statistical or numerical information

An account which supports an argument, but which is not supported by scientific or statistical analysis.

Alternative form of statistical

A previously untold secret account of an incident.

A single item in a statistical study.

(ambitransitive) To tell anecdotes (about).

A quantity calculated from the data in a sample, which characterises an important aspect in the sample (such as mean or standard deviation).

Unpublished narratives.

A person, or personal event, reduced to being an item of statistical information.

A particular or detached incident or fact of an interesting nature; a biographical incident or fragment; a single passage of private life.

Of or pertaining to statistics; as, statistical knowledge; statistical tabulation.

Short account of an incident (especially a biographical one)

A datum that can be represented numerically