SPSS

SPSS, originally the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, is a software package for statistical analysis. Now marketed by IBM as IBM SPSS Statistics, it provides a comprehensive environment for data management, descriptive statistics, and a wide range of statistical procedures used in social science, health, market research, and related fields. The program combines a graphical user interface with a command syntax language, and supports scripting through Python and R extensions for automation and custom analyses.

Core capabilities include data cleaning and transformation, descriptive statistics, cross-tabulations, t tests, analysis of variance (ANOVA), multivariate tests, regression (linear, logistic, and others), nonparametric methods, factor analysis, cluster analysis, discriminant analysis, and reliability analysis. It handles time series and basic forecasting tasks, and produces graphs and charts. Data import and export support includes CSV, Excel, SAS, Stata, SPSS’s own .sav format, and other formats, enabling integration with other tools. Output is organized in a structured viewer and can be exported to Word, Excel, PDF, or other documents.

SPSS offers both a point-and-click graphical user interface and a syntax language for reproducibility. It also supports extensions through Python and R, enabling custom procedures and integration with broader workflows. The software is distributed as modular components, with add-ons such as AMOS for structural equation modeling and SPSS Modeler for data mining in some installations.

History and status: SPSS was developed in 1968 at Stanford University by Norman Nie, C. Hadlai Hull, and Dale H. Bent. The SPSS Inc. company continued development until its acquisition by IBM in 2009, after which the product was rebranded IBM SPSS Statistics. It remains widely used in universities, government agencies, and industry for research and data-driven decision making.