statistician

IPA/ˌstætɪˈstɪʃn/
KK[stˌætəstˈɪʃən]IPA/ˌstætɪˈstɪʃn/

statistician — noun

  • statisticiansingular
  • statisticiansplural

1. a person whose job or area of study involves collecting numerical information, o

1.nounB2
Definition

a person whose job or area of study involves collecting numerical information, organizing it, and using mathematical methods to find patterns, draw conclusions, or make predictions

Example

The hospital hired a statistician to study patient recovery rates after the new treatment was introduced.

collocation: hired a statistician

As a statistician for the city council, Priyanka analyzes data on traffic accidents and housing prices.

preposition: data on [topic area]

Common collocations
  • trained statistician
  • lead statistician
  • government statistician
  • work as a statistician
  • consult a statistician
Synonyms
  • data analyst

    more focused on practical data processing and reporting; statistician has a stronger emphasis on mathematical theory and method design

  • actuary

    a specialist who uses statistics to calculate financial risk and insurance premiums; more narrow than statistician

Common Mistakes

The statistician counted the number of apples in the basket.
The statistician analyzed the survey data to find trends in consumer spending.
A statistician works with data analysis and interpretation, not simple counting.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

A statistician is someone trained in the mathematical theory of statistics and applies it to collect, organize, and interpret data across fields like medicine, economics, or public policy. A data analyst focuses more on the practical tasks of cleaning, processing, and visualizing data using software tools, often with less emphasis on the underlying mathematical models. An actuary is a specific type of statistician who works in insurance and finance, calculating risk and setting premiums based on statistical tables. A mathematician has broader expertise in pure and applied mathematics and may or may not specialize in statistics. For example, a hospital might hire a statistician to design a clinical trial, a data analyst to build a patient dashboard, and an actuary to set health insurance rates.

data analystactuarymathematician ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • government statistician
  • research statistician
  • chief statistician

Phrases

  • work as a statistician
  • consult a statistician
  • trained as a statistician

Prepositions

  • statistician at [institution]
  • statistician for [organization]

Etymology

LatinGermanEnglish

The word 'statistician' comes from the German 'Statistik', which originally referred to the systematic study of the affairs of a state — its population, economy, and resources. The German term was based on the Latin 'statisticus', meaning 'of state affairs'. By the early 1800s, 'statistics' in English had shifted from 'state science' to mean numerical data collection in general, and 'statistician' emerged soon after to describe a person working in that field.