means The branch of mathematics that collects, analyzes, and interprets numerical data to find patterns, make inferences, and quantify uncertainty.

from From the German Statistik, coined in the 18th century by the political economist Gottfried Achenwall, who built it on the Latin status — meaning 'state' or 'condition.' Statistics began quite literally as the science of the state: counting populations, taxes, and resources so rulers knew what they were ruling. The word arrived in English in the late 1700s, and only later drifted from 'facts about a nation' toward 'the math of data in general.' That status root, fittingly, is the same one lurking in 'state' and 'statistic' — a cousin of every word about standing and how things stand.