What is a distribution in statistics?

A distribution in statistics refers to a function or a representation that illustrates all the possible values of a variable along with their corresponding frequencies. This means that distribution provides insight into how frequently each value occurs in a dataset, allowing statisticians to understand patterns, trends, and variations within the data.

By showing the spread of data points, distributions can take various forms, such as normal, binomial, or uniform, amongst others. Each of these forms can indicate different characteristics of the data, for instance, whether it is skewed or symmetric, and how concentrated the data points are around a central value.

In contrast, other options do not capture the essence of what a distribution represents. A summary of a single observation does not convey broader insights into how data values relate to one another or their frequencies. The process of cleaning up data pertains to data quality and preprocessing, which does not define what a distribution is. A representation of biased data might indicate where data misrepresentation occurs, but it does not define a distribution, which can be unbiased or biased depending on the context and nature of the data being analyzed.