CANTON -- St. Lawrence University students will have a new major in statistics on their list of choices this fall.

The New York State Education Department has approved a new bachelor of science in statistics degree at SLU, giving students the opportunity to major in a discipline that recently has gained distinction as its own field of study.

Statistics is an increasingly important discipline in the information era, applicable in a variety of fields. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of statisticians is expected to grow 27 percent from 2012 to 2022, which is much faster than the average for all occupations.

“There is difference between mathematics and statistics,” said Michael Schuckers, associate professor of statistics and author of the statistics major proposal.

“Statistics,” he said, “is the study of how do we go out and collect data, how we summarize that data, and how we make decisions, or how do we make inferences, based on the data while also recognizing uncertainties.

“Mathematics uses deductive reasoning to go from the general down to the specific, while statistics uses inductive reasoning that looks at a subset of data and applies it to a larger population.”

Last year, more than 185,000 high school students took the College Board’s Advanced Placement exam in statistics, which is double the number from just five years ago. But it remains rare for a liberal arts college to offer a bachelor’s degree in statistics, the announcement from the university said.

“We already have about 40 students minoring in stats, and we think several will decide to make it their major. Plus, we were able to offer the major without having to add any additional teaching or support resources,” Schuckers said.

Students can declare a statistics and mathematics double major as long as they meet the minimum requirements for both majors.

For more information, visit St. Lawrence's Department of Mathematics, Computer Science and Statistics at www.stlawu.edu/math-computer-science-and-statistics.