top of page
Feb 155 min read

The new statistics book

Updated: Jun 19



Statistics: An Interdisciplinary Introduction with Interactive Elements


This outstanding introduction into the statistics conveys data and methods competence in unique combination with current, interdisciplinary examples and interactive elements.


Our book has already won several media and innovation awards for this and is now available in a completely revised, updated and expanded seventh edition.


Outstanding suitability for self-study, lecture and education

The work is used at several universities used and covers the usual contents of the Statistics I and II lectures. It is ideally suited for further vocational training, for self-study and as a supplement to statistics lessons at upper secondary level II. Code in the popular programming language R is provided for all exercises.


Practical relevance, interdisciplinarity and high topicality

The relevance of data and methodological skills is illustrated using motivational examples and excurses from multiple areas of statistical application. Links to media contributions provide suggestions for your own further considerations. New or significantly updated sections include explanations on AI, data collection and visualization, sustainibility and income inequality as well as policy monitoring using indicators.


Interactive visualization and innovative media mix

In addition to videos and podcasts, the consistently colorful book offers completely new interactive visualizations of statistical methods and socially relevant data, which are integrated via QR-code. All interactive elements can also be used independently of the book in lectures or in training, e.g. on smartboards. All web links that cannot be accessed directly in the print version are listed below.


Section 1.1


Population forecast of the Federal Statistical Office (Population pyramid): https://service.destatis.de/bevoelkerungspyramide/

European Office for Statistics Eurostat: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/en/

UN Millennium 2030 Agenda for sustainable development: https://sdgs.un.org/2030agenda


Section 1.2


Learning platform for AI of the German Donors' Association (KI-Campus): https://ki-campus.org/

UN Millennium 2030 Agenda for sustainable development: https://sdgs.un.org/2030agenda

EU Initiative "Covenant of Mayors" for achieving climate and energy goals: https://eu-mayors.ec.europa.eu/en/home

Category "Data journalism" of the British daily newspaper "The Guardian": https://www.theguardian.com/media/data-journalism

Article from 31. 3. 2023 in the daily newspaper "The Guardian" to free online returns: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/mar/31/what-happens-when-we-send-back-unwanted-clothes

Article from 28. 2. 2023 in the weekly magazine "Die Zeit" to free online returns: https://www.zeit.de/green/2023-02/zalando-online-mode-fast-fashion-retoure-nachhaltigkeit


Section 1.3


Article in the magazine "Reason" to a questionable surveillance practice in the tourism area: https://reason.com/2019/02/05/hotel-surveillance-state-sex-trafficking/

International Statistical Literacy Project (ISLP): http://iase-web.org/islp/

Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education (CAUSE): https://www.causeweb.org/cause/

Statistics Online Computational Resource (SOCR): http://socr.ucla.edu/

App "City|Country|Data flow" of the Adult Education Centers Association: https://ki-campus.org/datenfluss/

Learning platform for Artificial Intelligence of the German Donors' Association (KI-Campus): https://ki-campus.org/


Section 1.4


Online platforms "Coursera", "EdX", "Udacity" and "iversity": https://www.coursera.org/; https://www.edx.org/; https://www.udacity.com/; https://iversity.org/


Section 2.3


Article from 20. 7. 2012 in the daily newspaper "The Guardian" to the measurement of happiness: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/mar/31/what-happens-when-we-send-back-unwanted-clothes

Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) of the German Institute for Economic Research: https://www.diw.de/de/diw_01.c.678568.de/forschungsdatenzentrum_soep.html

European Office for Statistics Eurostat: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/en/

International Labour Organization (ILO): http://www.ilo.org/global/lang--en/index.htm

Federal Employment Agency (BA): https://www.arbeitsagentur.de/

Federal Statistical Office: https://www.destatis.de/


Section 3.1


European Office for Statistics Eurostat: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/en/

United Nations Refugee

Agency (UNHCR): https://www.unhcr.org/

Article in the specialist magazine "Frontiers and Evolution" to the social and mating behavior of prairie voles: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2018.00178/full

Report of the Austrian Federal Forests to the marking of wild and stocked fish: https://www.bundesforste.at/leistungen/fischerei/foerderprojekt-ioeg/fischmarkierung-pit-tag.html

Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) of the German Institute for Economic Research: https://www.diw.de/de/diw_01.c.678568.de/forschungsdatenzentrum_soep.html

General Population Survey of the Social Sciences (ALLBUS): https://www.gesis.org/allbus/allbus

Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences (GESIS): https://www.gesis.org/home


Section 3.2


Society for Consumer Research (GfK): https://www.gfk.com/de/home

Working Group on Television Research (AGF): https://www.agf.de/agf/


Section 3.4


Federal Statistical Office: https://www.destatis.de/

European Office for Statistics Eurostat: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/en/

Portal "Statistics Explained" by Eurostat: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD): https://www.oecd.org/

UN Statistics Division: https://unstats.un.org/UNSDWebsite/


Section 4.1


Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI): https://www.sipri.org/

COVID-19 Dashboard of the World Health Organization (WHO): https://covid19.who.int/

COVID-19 Dashboard of the Johns Hopkins University: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html


Section 4.2


Earnings Structure Survey of the European Office for Statistics (Eurostat): https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/en/web/microdata/structure-of-earnings-survey


Section 4.3


Infographic of the Federal Statistical Office on Instagram to e-scooter accidents: https://www.instagram.com/p/CsjIkxQorvf/

Article of the Süddeutsche Zeitung from 11.2.2019 to the development of the bee population: https://www.sueddeutsche.de/bayern/volksbegehren-bienen-streit-1.4325058


Section 5.1


Data of the International Energy Agency (IEA): https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics

Full Fact (independent institution that makes questionable statistical information public for the United Kingdom): https://fullfact.org/


Section 5.3


Article from 29. 1. 2018 in the "Wirtschaftswoche" to a hacker attack on a Tokyo trading platform for cryptocurrencies: https://www.wiwo.de/finanzen/geldanlage/hackerangriff-auf-coincheck-so-reagieren-die-behoerden-auf-den-mega-raub/20902810.html


Section 7.1


International Energy Agency (IEA): https://www.iea.org/


Section 7.2


Data of the OECD on worldwide income inequality, measured by means of the Gini coefficient: https://data.oecd.org/inequality/income-inequality.htm

Data from the World Factbook of the CIA on worldwide income inequality, measured by means of the Gini coefficient


Section 7.3


World Inequality Report 2022: https://wir2022.wid.world/


Section 8.1


Data and information of the World Health Organization (WHO) to the Body-Mass-Index: https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/themes/topics/topic-details/GHO/body-mass-index

General information of the World Health Organization (WHO) to overweight: https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and-overweight

Federal Statistical Office: https://www.destatis.de/

Sustainability indicators of the Federal Statistical Office: https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Gesellschaft-Umwelt/Nachhaltigkeitsindikatoren/

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI): https://www.sipri.org/

Report of the human rights organization "Human Rights Watch" to the surveillance practice in the Chinese province Xinjiang: https://www.hrw.org/video-photos/interactive/2019/05/02/china-how-mass-surveillance-works-xinjiang

Report of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists to the surveillance practice in the Chinese province Xinjiang: https://www.icij.org/investigations/china-cables/exposed-chinas-operating-manuals-for-mass-internment-and-arrest-by-algorithm/

Xinjiang Police Files to the situation in internment camps in the Chinese province Xinjiang: https://www.xinjiangpolicefiles.org/


Section 8.2


Stiftung Warentest: https://www.test.de/

Article from 26. 8. 2008 in the "Guardian" to the medal ranking at Olympics: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/aug/26/olympics2008

Federal Statistical Office: https://www.destatis.de/

Human Development Index (HDI) of the United Nations: https://hdr.undp.org/data-center/human-development-index#/indicies/HDI

Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) of the United Nations: https://hdr.undp.org/content/2021-global-multidimensional-poverty-index-mpi#/indicies/MPI

Better-Life-Index of the OECD for Germany: https://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/countries/germany/

World Economic Forum: https://www.weforum.org/

Global Competitiveness Report 2020 of the World Economic Forum: https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_TheGlobalCompetitivenessReport2020.pdf

World Press Freedom Index: https://rsf.org/en/index


Section 9.3


Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI): https://www.sipri.org/

Web page of the free software R: https://www.r-project.org/


Section 10.2


Web page with examples to the topic "Spurious correlations": https://tylervigen

.com/spurious-correlations


Section 11.5


Learning platform for AI of the German Donors' Association (KI-Campus): https://ki-campus.org/

Umbrella organization of the European Statistical Societies (FENStats): https://www.fenstats.eu/


Section 12.2



Section 15.2


Article from 25. 2. 2010 in the weekly magazine "Der Spiegel" to the so-called "Maserati affair": https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/maserati-affaere-obdachlosenhelfer-nimmt-auszeit-a-680234.html


Section 15.3



bottom of page