STATA 9 is a statistical package commonly used for biostatistical applications. It is used more in universities than in industry. STATA is quickly growing in popularity, and version 9 is the latest attempt to topple SAS from its biostatistical pedestal. STATA 9 is extremely user-friendly, yet powerful as well.

People who need statistical software but not the services of a statistician will find STATA quite useful. Provided you have a basic knowledge of statistics, the drop-down menus are extremely easy to navigate, even if you do not have a manual to consult. It is fairly easy to learn how to use STATA 9, and it is quite useful and powerful. STATA 9 is not perfect; it is not as powerful as SAS, and it still has design flaws. However, STATA 9 is the hands-down best choice for the casual statistics user. It is well-suited to people who need to complete a simple statistics project that is outside the scope of Microsoft Excel. Anyone who has taken an introductory statistics class should be able to use STATA 9 with relative ease. If you need to do some simple statistical analysis quickly and easily, consider using STATA 9.