statistics - a branch of applied mathematics concerned with the collection and interpretation of quantitative data and the use of probability theory to estimate population parameters

statistical method, statistical procedure - a method of analyzing or representing statistical data; a procedure for calculating a statistic

regression analysis - the use of regression to make quantitative predictions of one variable from the values of another

linear regression, rectilinear regression - the relation between variables when the regression equation is linear: e.g., y = ax + b

curvilinear regression - the relation between variables when the regression equation is nonlinear (quadratic or higher order)