Is learning statistics important for data science?
Statistics is an essential pillar of studying data science across all its niches.
While it’s true that there are many tools available today that have reduced the computation work for us, to truly understand the math and principles that drive data and our work, it’s essential to have a good understanding of statistics.
Otherwise, we’d just be good tool experts, as opposed to being great data analysts. What’s more, before we even feed raw data to any software, the right statistical knowledge enables us to source and clean data so that we get quality results.
It’s clear how vital it is to learn statistics, and these statistics courses are an excellent place to start.
In this guide, I’ll be taking you through the best statistics courses online for data science in 2023 that will help set your career in motion.
Let’s get started.
Would you like to make data-driven business decisions?
Then this training can help with business intelligence in the following ways:
However, there are fewer practice exercises towards the end. Overall though, there are plenty of data sets to work with so it remains the best statistics course online for business analysis and data science as well.
For an entry-level introduction to statistics, this tutorial will get you started with exploratory data analysis and other important topics.
You’ll get to learn about:
Course support in the discussion forum may be hard to come by because of instructor unavailability. Nonetheless, the student community is quite active and you can get any help you may need from there. It’s unlikely though that you’ll need it because the course is well put-together.
For a crash course on the basics of statistics, this 33-minute tutorial is the way to go.
Some course benefits include:
In the first data set under the introduction to variability, there’s a small typo to watch out for that may be confusing. The good news is that it has already been addressed in the discussion forum, so that should clear any confusion there might be in that section.
Would you like to understand R for statistical analysis?
Then this is one of the best statistics courses on Udemy to also learn R programming on the side.
Some course highlights include:
However, the course only tackles univariate analysis and doesn’t cover multivariate analysis, which offers more reliable results. That said, it offers important statistical foundations to set you on your way to understanding complex topics.
If you have a specific interest in making better decisions, be it in life or business, this course by the University of London is key.
You’ll learn about:
There are a few problems to watch out for with the peer review homework instructions. In particular, the LaTeX equations in assignment 1 don’t display too well. It remains one of the best statistics courses online because the rest of the assignments are well laid out, and the matter has been addressed in the forum.
Are you interested in learning how to use IBM SPSS?
This data analysis and management tool is great for simply executing complex data manipulation.
Some course highlights include:
Because of its non-mathematical approach, it may not be suitable if you’d like to learn advanced statistical concepts and calculations. However, it simplifies all the statistical work involved in learning SPSS and descriptive statistics.
Would you like to perform statistical analysis in Python?
With an ability to handle large datasets with ease, Python is an excellent programming language for statistical analysis.
Some course highlights include:
This course assumes an understanding of Python basics, and as such doesn’t go into great detail about the coding. For intermediate Python programmers, this is the best statistics course on Udemy to harness your knowledge of Python and explore complex machine learning and statistics projects.
Python is today commonly used by data scientists all around the world. This tutorial gives you insight into financial analysis through Python programming.
Some course benefits include:
On the downside, this may not be the most ideal introductory training as you need some Python programming training to fit in comfortably.
The upside is that with just a little experience with Python basics, it is the best statistics course on Coursera to learn advanced concepts of financial analysis in no time.
Learning statistics isn’t always about making huge business decisions. Sometimes it’s about solving everyday challenges like being good at certain games.
This is one of the best statistics courses on LinkedIn Learning because:
If you’re keen on a certificate of completion, it’s worth noting that this course doesn’t offer one as it’s an ongoing series. The great thing is that it is the best statistics course online for staying up to date because you get to consistently learn new statistics concepts.
Statistics is an important building block for data science and business analytics, and this course is great to get you started.
Some course highlights include:
While the course could have benefited from more slides to accompany the instructor’s audio and make some of the sections more interactive, it remains one of the best statistics courses online because you can still use the transcripts to get lesson summaries.
For the complete walkthrough on the Bayesian approach to inferential statistics, this training will take you from basic to advanced in no time.
At the end of this course, you’ll be able to:
Unfortunately, this may not be a beginner-friendly course as it assumes a basic understanding of probability and statistics. For intermediate learners, you’ll find that the course proceeds at an excellent pace without stalling on the basics.
Via Python 3.6, this course will show you how to leverage the power of programming to speed through the basics of traditional statistics.
You’ll learn about:
With Python now in version 3.8, the coding syntax has changed a little since the version used in this course. But it’s nothing too major that you can’t easily workaround, so it remains the best statistics course online for Python and data science.
If you’re looking to study statistics and probability for an upcoming exam, this tutorial offers the right training to get you test-ready.
Some course benefits include:
Even though the training doesn’t use real-life data sets, you may still be able to derive many concepts for business applications. Conversely, it’s the best statistics course on Udemy if you’re more interested in curriculum statistics for passing institutional exams.
How does the probability theory affect data science?
This course will give you answers to this question and more. You’ll also get to learn about:
There are lots of quizzes in between lectures which makes this course a little more time-consuming than it appears to be. However, it is for this reason that this is the best statistics course on Coursera if you’re keen on a course that gives you plenty of opportunities to practice.
If you’re interested in learning artificial intelligence and machine learning, in particular, this is the course to take you right to the heart of the statistics involved.
Some course highlights include:
Prior exposure to IBM SPSS statistics is assumed so you may have to bridge this course with a tutorial on SPSS. However, you can still comfortably take it regardless of this knowledge because it mostly focuses on the concepts rather than the software’s mechanics.
Learning statistics enables you to take on many data science roles.
You can accomplish all of your goals with the best statistics courses online for data science in 2023.
If business intelligence is a big motivator, then you may find that this Statistics for Data Science and Business Analysis course on Udemy is full of important statistical techniques for real business applications.
The training also covers inferential statistics to help predict business trends.
For a more holistic and diverse approach to learning statistics, you could try out the Introduction to Statistics course on Coursera.
Here, you’ll learn about statistical concepts, such as regression diagnostics, which you can put to good use across the board.