March 1

Data Science – Statistics Should Be Your First Focus

Blog, Ecourses, Resources

0  comments

If you're looking for the best statistics courses for Data Science, Udemy has some of the best - and cheapest - stats courses, and is a great place to get your data ninja juices flowing.

There are loads of courses at Udemy to help you learn statistics, literally hundreds of them, so where to start?

In this blog post I'm going to introduce you to the best data analysis courses and the best statistics courses online.

I'll show you the best probability courses, regression courses and Bayesian statistics courses too.

Here you'll also find the best Time Series analysis courses in both Python and R.

Finally, there will be some surprise courses at the end, so stick around and check them out.

Ready to get started? Then let's go...

More...

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. This means that if you click one of the links and make a purchase we may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate we may earn an affiliate commission for purchases you make when using the links in this page.

You can find further details in our TCs

Think You Don't Need to Learn Statistics? Think Again!

If you didn't know it yet, statistics is really important in science and society.

It used to be used mainly for hypothesis testing, but in these days of Data ScienceBig Data and the Internet of Things it's being used just as much for making discoveries and formulating new hypotheses.

Until just a few short years ago biology was a data-poor discipline, but since The Human Genome Project was completed in 2000, biology - and bioinformatics in particular - has become extremely data-intensive and it's becoming ever more important to learn statistics.

Medicine is becoming increasingly personalised, driven by the huge amounts of data that are being captured (and statistics used to analyse them), leading to better predictions of disease risk, treatment and the quality of care.

In the wider society, statistics and data mining are being used for crime analysis, predictive policing, sentencing and crime policy. They are also being used to improve efficiency in national power grids, traffic predictions and prevention of terrorist attacks.

NASA use them. So do the United Nations, the World Health Organisation and Médecins Sans Frontières. Heck, even politicians use them to shape their campaigning strategies and guide policy.

The Best Statistics Courses for Data Science - Our Top Picks #statistics #udemy #courses #datascience @chi2innovations

Click to Tweet

FYI - this blog post is part of a series of 7 posts on learning how to be a Data Science Ninja, which also includes posts on data viz, python programming, neural nets and other stuff. You can find all the other posts in the series below (and there's a reminder at the foot of the post too).

Jump Station

This blog post is part of a series of 7 posts on learning how to be a Data Science Ninja.

For more detail, choose from the other options below:

3 Simple Tests Every Data Scientist Must Pass To Succeed
Secrets To Mastering The Art Of Data Science
Data Science – Statistics Should Be Your First Focus
Essential Python Courses For Highly Successful Data Scientists
How To Sharpen Your R Programming Skills
The 3 Step Survival Guide To Machine Learning
New To Data Visualisation? Here’s 3 Things You Need To Know

Some Data Scientists Say You Don't Need to Learn Statistics...

Unfortunately, there are many Data Scientists who think that you don't need to learn statistics and we can sort of, um, do without it. You can read my thoughts on that in my blog post Statistics is Dead – Long Live Data Science…

As you've probably guessed I don't sit on the fence on this, I'm very much in favour of all Data Scientists going out of their way to learn statistics.

Despite this though, and despite the fact that I've been hanging around stats for the best part of 30 years (oops, I'm giving away my age here), I feel that - in general - stats is taught really poorly.

Over the years I've had over a dozen different teachers, and they've all made the subject feel like it's as boring as hell. Their delivery has been dire, their materials just scraped from academic stats books and they made it clear to us that they didn't want to be there and teaching was just getting in the way of their research.

Worst of all, they had no empathy. They were experts in stats, so they couldn't understand why their students were having difficulties with it - and they didn't care.

Best Statistics Courses for Beginner Data Scientists

Pin it for later

Need to save this for later?


Pin it to your favourite board  and you can get back to it when you're ready.

Top 3: The Best Statistics Courses for Data Science

Teaching of stats is better these days though, isn't it?

Well, apparently not. I've spent days searching Udemy, looking for what might be the best statistics courses online, and although there are loads of courses available, I often found myself nodding off.

Not to worry though, there were some stats courses that were well presented, well taught and well thought through, so I thought I might introduce them to you.

Sitting comfortably? Then let's have a look at our top 3 picks of the best statistics courses for Data Science.

#1

Master statistics & machine learning: intuition, math, code

Mike X Cohen

4.8 of 5 stars

A rigorous and engaging deep-dive into statistics and machine-learning, with hands-on applications in Python and MATLAB.

If you want to make yourself a future-proof employee, employer, data scientist, or researcher in any technical field - ranging from data scientist to engineering to research scientist to deep learning modeler - you'll need to know statistics and machine-learning.

And you'll need to know how to implement concepts like probability theory and confidence intervals, k-means clustering and PCA, Spearman correlation and logistic regression, in computer languages like Python or MATLAB...

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Statistics and probability control your life. I don't just mean What YouTube's algorithm recommends you to watch next, and I don't just mean the chance of meeting your future significant other in class or at a bar. Human behavior, single-cell organisms, Earthquakes, the stock market, whether it will snow in the first week of December, and countless other phenomena are probabilistic and statistical. Even the very nature of the most fundamental deep structure of the universe is governed by probability and statistics.

You need to understand statistics.

Nearly all areas of human civilization are incorporating code and numerical computations. This means that many jobs and areas of study are based on applications of statistical and machine-learning techniques in programming languages like Python and MATLAB. This is often called 'data science' and is an increasingly important topic. Statistics and machine learning are also fundamental to artificial intelligence (AI) and business intelligence.

If you want to make yourself a future-proof employee, employer, data scientist, or researcher in any technical field - ranging from data scientist to engineering to research scientist to deep learning modeler - you'll need to know statistics and machine-learning. And you'll need to know how to implement concepts like probability theory and confidence intervals, k-means clustering and PCA, Spearman correlation and logistic regression, in computer languages like Python or MATLAB.

There are six reasons why you should take this course:

  • This course covers everything you need to understand the fundamentals of statistics, machine learning, and data science, from bar plots to ANOVAs, regression to k-means, t-test to non-parametric permutation testing.
  • After completing this course, you will be able to understand a wide range of statistical and machine-learning analyses, even specific advanced methods that aren't taught here. That's because you will learn the foundations upon which advanced methods are build.
  • This course balances mathematical rigor with intuitive explanations, and hands-on explorations in code.
  • Enrolling in the course gives you access to the Q&A, in which I actively participate every day.
  • I've been studying, developing, and teaching statistics for 20 years, and I'm, like, really great at math.
#2

Statistics for Business Analytics and Data Science A-Z

Kirill Eremenko

4.6 of 5 stars

Learn The Core Stats For A Data Science Career. Master Statistical Significance, Confidence Intervals And Much More!

If you are aiming for a career as a Data Scientist or Business Analyst then brushing up on your statistics skills is something you need to do.

Here you will quickly get the absolutely essential stats knowledge for a Data Scientist or Analyst.

I have specifically included real-world examples of business challenges to show you how you could apply this knowledge to boost YOUR career.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

If you are aiming for a career as a Data Scientist or Business Analyst then brushing up on your statistics skills is something you need to do.

But it's just hard to get started... Learning / re-learning ALL of stats just seems like a daunting task.

That's exactly why I have created this course!

Here you will quickly get the absolutely essential stats knowledge for a Data Scientist or Analyst.

This is not just another boring course on stats. 

This course is very practical. 

I have specifically included real-world examples of business challenges to show you how you could apply this knowledge to boost YOUR career.

At the same time you will master topics such as distributions, the z-test, the Central Limit Theorem, hypothesis testing, confidence intervals, statistical significance and many more!

#3

Statistics & Mathematics for Data Science & Data Analytics

Nikolai Schuler

4.6 of 5 stars

Learn the statistics & probability for data science and business analysis

This course is giving you the chance to systematically master the core concepts in statistics & probability, descriptive statistics, hypothesis testing, regression analysis, analysis of variance and some advance regression / machine learning methods such as logistics regressions, polynomial regressions , decision trees and more.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Are you aiming for a career in Data Science or Data Analytics?

Good news, you don't need a Maths degree - this course is equipping you with the practical knowledge needed to master the necessary statistics.

It is very important if you want to become a Data Scientist or a Data Analyst to have a good knowledge in statistics & probability theory.

Sure, there is more to Data Science than only statistics. But still it plays an essential role to know these fundamentals ins statistics.

I know it is very hard to gain a strong foothold in these concepts just by yourself. Therefore I have created this course.

Why should you take this course?

  • This course is the one course you take in statistic that is equipping you with the actual knowledge you need in statistics if you work with data
  • This course is taught by an actual mathematician that is in the same time also working as a data scientist.
  • This course is balancing both: theory & practical real-life example.
  • After completing this course you ll have everything you need to master the fundamentals in statistics & probability need in data science or data analysis.

What is in this course?

This course is giving you the chance to systematically master the core concepts in statistics & probability, descriptive statistics, hypothesis testing, regression analysis, analysis of variance and some advance regression / machine learning methods such as logistics regressions, polynomial regressions , decision trees and more.

In real-life examples you will learn the stats knowledge needed in a data scientist's or data analyst's career very quickly.

Another 3: The Best Statistics Courses for Data Science

To be honest, I intended only recommending 3 statistics courses in this blog post, but I just couldn't narrow it down to 3, so I'm recommending 6 - and it was hard to narrow it down to these.

These next 3 statistics courses are by no means inferior to those listed above.

So here we are, another 3 of the best statistics courses online:

Top 3: The Best Probability Courses

Probability might not be your favourite subject (it's not mine either), but it is incredibly important if you want to learn statistics and how it works.

In that vein, these next 3 are my picks of the best probability courses.

Another 3: The Best Probability Courses

If those first 3 picks don't tickle your fancy, you might want to look at another set.

Here are another 3 of the best probability courses:

Top 3: The Best Regression Courses

Regression is perhaps one of the most used (and misused) techniques in statistics and Data Science, so it pays to learn how to do it properly.

To help with that, here are my picks of the best regression courses at Udemy:

Top 3: The Best Bayesian Statistics Courses

Bayesian statistics can seem difficult to get into, but it's becoming incredibly important, and here's a little tip for you - Data Science will be increasingly dominated by Bayesian statistics in the future.

Get ahead of the curve and learn how to do Bayesian statistics.

Here are my selection of the best Bayesian statistics courses at Udemy:

Top 3: The Best Time Series Analysis Courses (Python)

Time Series analysis is another of those subjects that seems difficult to get into, but it can be very rewarding once you've mastered the basics.

To help you with that, I've found the best Time Series analysis courses for Python at Udemy, and here are my top 3 picks:

Another 3: The Best Time Series Analysis Courses (Python)

Those 3 courses aren't the only good Python Time Series analysis courses at Udemy, there are lots more.

If my top 3 pick of the best Time Series analysis courses for Python don't excite you, here are another 3 picks of the best Python Time Series analysis courses:

Top 3: The Best Time Series Analysis Courses (R)

For those of you interested in checking out the best Time Series analysis courses but you're not a Python programmer, there are some great Time Series courses in R.

Here are my top 3 picks of the best Time Series analysis courses in R:

Top 3: 'Other Interesting' Stats Courses

There are just soooo many great courses to learn statistics at Udemy.

There are other interesting courses too, some of them that defy categorisation, so I thought I'd have a little section here at the end to highlight some more interesting statistics courses that might just take your fancy.

Here are our top 3 picks:

Another 3: 'Other Interesting' Stats Courses

And here are another 3 interesting courses that you might like to try out:

Statistics Books

If courses aren't really your thing and you prefer to learn by reading a good book, we have a post dedicated to The Best Statistics Books for Data Science.

Check them out - you won't be disappointed!

45+ Awesome Gifts for Data Scientists, Statisticians and Other Geeks
Computational Statistics is the New Holy Grail – Experts
3 Crucial Tips for Data Processing and Analysis
Correlation Is Not Causation – Pirates Prove It!
Best Statistics Books For Data Science – And Everyone Else

The Best Statistics Course for Data Science - Summary

There are loads of statistics courses at Udemy, not just the ones listed above. If none of these take your fancy, have a look around and I'm sure you'll find other stats courses that might just hit the spot.

If you discover a better statistics course out there, one that you think might be the best statistics course online, let me know - I may add it in to this blog post!

Final word - when you've done any of these courses on how to learn statistics, please return and leave some feedback and a review in the comments below. If you loved the course, great - come and tell us. If you hated it, that's great too - leave a comment saying what you didn't like about it.

Jump Station

This blog post is part of a series of 7 posts on learning how to be a Data Science Ninja.

For more detail, choose from the other options below:

3 Simple Tests Every Data Scientist Must Pass To Succeed
Secrets To Mastering The Art Of Data Science
Data Science – Statistics Should Be Your First Focus
Essential Python Courses For Highly Successful Data Scientists
How To Sharpen Your R Programming Skills
The 3 Step Survival Guide To Machine Learning
New To Data Visualisation? Here’s 3 Things You Need To Know
Looking for statistics courses to update your skills? Check out the 4 most popular statistics courses for Beginner Data Scientists. #statisticscourses #analytics #udemy4 Essential Statistics Courses for Beginner Data Scientists #statisticscourses #statistics #datascience

Tags

data science ninja courses, statistics


Lee Baker

Follow me:

About the Author

Lee Baker is an award-winning software creator that lives behind a keyboard in a darkened room. Illuminated only by the light from his monitor, he aspires to finding the light switch.

With decades of experience in science, statistics and artificial intelligence, he has a passion for telling stories with data.

His mission is to help you discover your inner Data Ninja!

You may also like

45+ Awesome Gifts for Data Scientists, Statisticians and Other Geeks
Computational Statistics is the New Holy Grail – Experts
3 Crucial Tips for Data Processing and Analysis
Correlation Is Not Causation – Pirates Prove It!
Demystifying Experimental Design: Key Strategies for Success
Harnessing Relationships: Correlation and Regression Explained
Remember Me
Success message!
Warning message!
Error message!