Statistical Question Examples in Statistics

Start with the recap, study the fully worked examples, then use the practice problems to check your understanding of Statistical Question.

This page combines explanation, solved examples, and follow-up practice so you can move from recognition to confident problem-solving in Statistics.

Concept Recap

A question that anticipates variability in answers - it can't be answered with a single number because different data points will give different responses.

'How old is my teacher?' has ONE answer - not statistical. 'How old are teachers at my school?' will have DIFFERENT answers for each teacher - that's statistical! The key: do you expect variation?

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How to Use These Examples

  • Read the first worked example with the solution open so the structure is clear.
  • Try the practice problems before revealing each solution.
  • Use the related concepts and background knowledge badges if you feel stuck.

What to Focus On

Core idea: A statistical question expects a range of different answers — it anticipates variability. A non-statistical question has exactly one fixed answer.

Common stuck point: Students confuse questions about a specific person ('How old is my teacher?') with questions about a group ('How old are teachers at school?').

Worked Examples

Example 1

easy
Which of the following is a statistical question? (a) How old is the headteacher? (b) How old are the students in Year 6? (c) What day is it today?

Solution

  1. 1
    Step 1: A statistical question anticipates variability in the responses — it expects different answers from different observations.
  2. 2
    Step 2: (a) 'How old is the headteacher?' has one fixed answer → not statistical. (c) 'What day is it today?' has one fixed answer → not statistical.
  3. 3
    Step 3: (b) 'How old are the students in Year 6?' will produce different ages for different students → this is a statistical question because it anticipates variability.

Answer

(b) 'How old are the students in Year 6?' is the statistical question.
A statistical question is one that can be answered by collecting data and where we expect variability in the data. Questions with a single definite answer are not statistical questions because there is no variability to analyse.

Example 2

medium
Rewrite each non-statistical question to make it statistical: (a) 'How many pages does this book have?' (b) 'What is the temperature right now?'

Practice Problems

Try these problems on your own first, then open the solution to compare your method.

Example 1

medium
Classify each question as statistical or non-statistical and justify: (a) 'How many goals did our team score last match?' (b) 'How many goals do professional teams score per match on average?' (c) 'What is the most popular pet among students in our school?'

Example 2

hard
A student asks: 'Do students who eat breakfast perform better on tests?' (a) Is this a statistical question? (b) What kind of data would need to be collected? (c) What type of study would be appropriate — observational or experimental?
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Background Knowledge

These ideas may be useful before you work through the harder examples.

questioningdata collection