Which of the following best describes descriptive, inferential, and predictive statistics?

• A. Descriptive summarizes data; predictive forecasts future outcomes; inferential uses samples to make inferences about populations.
• B. Descriptive summarizes data; inferential uses samples to make inferences about populations; predictive forecasts future outcomes.
• C. Predictive forecasts future outcomes; descriptive summarizes data; inferential uses samples to infer populations.
• D. Descriptive measures reliability; inferential measures validity; predictive measures correlation.

Answer: (B)

In statistics, you distinguish between describing what you’ve observed, generalizing from a sample to a larger group, and forecasting future observations. Descriptive statistics summarize the actual data you have—think measures like the average, the spread, and visual summaries. Inferential statistics take that sample and attempt to draw conclusions about a population, such as estimating a population mean or testing a hypothesis. Predictive statistics use patterns in the data to forecast future outcomes or observations.

The best option matches this structure clearly: descriptive summarizes data, inferential uses a sample to infer about populations, and predictive forecasts future outcomes. It keeps the roles precise and in the standard sequence, making the distinctions easy to apply in practice.