SPSS is a common software used by data analysts to conduct statistical data analysis. The designation SPSS is short for Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. While no longer just used in social science, SPSS is today a common tool for education, marketing, and healthcare researchers to perform statistical analysis and statistical operations. Among the types of data analyzed using SPSS by researchers include scientific research results, Google analytics, server log files, survey results, and organization customer databases. SPSS software, which has been owned by IBM for over a decade, supports spreadsheets, plain text files, and relational databases like SAS, SATA, and SQL. In fact, almost all kinds of formats of structured data are supported by SPSS software.

Why is it valuable to learn SPSS?

It's valuable to learn SPSS as it may give you graphical insights into how to manage data, conduct data mining, select data cases, recode variables, and manage research surveys. Learning SPSS can also help provide quick data analysis with accurate information about variables and cases. The SPSS software also includes charts and graphs, which makes it easy to share and show data findings. These are valuable assets to learn and to use in your professional career. SPSS software can simplify and speed up your data analytics work through its menu-driven UI that gives you data insights with a few clicks.

What are typical career opportunities that can arise from learning SPSS?

Typical career opportunities that use SPSS are mainly jobs like data analysts, research analysts, and intelligence analysts. These roles may be in government work, research, healthcare, science, education, and marketing. You may even use SPSS understanding to work as an SPSS software instructor. In many of these roles, your knowledge of SPSS would help you conduct data management, data analysis, and research functions for your organization, to help provide meaningful insight for the enterprise.

How can taking online courses on Coursera help me learn SPSS?

When you take online courses on Coursera about SPSS, you may learn the basics of using the SPSS software and the fundamentals of statistical theory and design, as well as how to create variables, how to enter data, and how to modify properties of variables in common statistical tests. Having a basic understanding of data and statistics may help you enrich your learning of SPSS in a faster way. It may also speed up your learning of how SPSS is used in quantitative research models and other statistics formulations.

Best SPSS Courses & Certificates [2025]

Explore the SPSS Course Catalog

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Peking University
医学统计学与SPSS软件（基础篇）
Skills you'll gain: Statistical Hypothesis Testing, SPSS, Statistical Analysis, Statistical Methods, Sampling (Statistics), Descriptive Statistics, Correlation Analysis, Regression Analysis, Probability & Statistics, Statistical Inference, Data Analysis Software
4.6
Rating, 4.6 out of 5 stars
154 reviews
Mixed · Course · 1 - 3 Months
Status: Free Trial
University of Amsterdam
Methods and Statistics in Social Sciences
Skills you'll gain: Qualitative Research, Scientific Methods, Statistical Analysis, Statistical Hypothesis Testing, Research, Research Design, Sampling (Statistics), Research Reports, Science and Research, Interviewing Skills, Data Analysis, Data Collection, Research Methodologies, Social Sciences, Surveys, Quantitative Research, Statistics, Regression Analysis, Statistical Inference, R Programming
4.6
Rating, 4.6 out of 5 stars
7.7K reviews
Beginner · Specialization · 3 - 6 Months
Status: Free Trial
University of Michigan
Survey Data Collection and Analytics
Skills you'll gain: Sampling (Statistics), Sample Size Determination, Surveys, Survey Creation, Research Methodologies, Data Collection, Statistical Analysis, Statistical Software, Interviewing Skills, Data Integration, Data Ethics, Research Design, Stata, Data Quality, Statistical Modeling, Qualitative Research, Descriptive Statistics, Statistical Programming, Data Cleansing, R Programming
4.4
Rating, 4.4 out of 5 stars
1.4K reviews
Beginner · Specialization · 3 - 6 Months
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Eindhoven University of Technology
Improving your statistical inferences
Skills you'll gain: Statistical Inference, Scientific Methods, Statistical Hypothesis Testing, Quantitative Research, Bayesian Statistics, Statistical Analysis, Statistical Methods, Probability & Statistics, Sample Size Determination, Research, Data Collection, R Programming, Data Sharing, Probability Distribution
4.9
Rating, 4.9 out of 5 stars
797 reviews
Intermediate · Course · 1 - 3 Months
Status: Free Trial
PwC
Data Visualization with Advanced Excel
Skills you'll gain: Data Visualization, Data Presentation, Dashboard, Data Storytelling, Data Visualization Software, Microsoft Excel, Spreadsheet Software, Excel Formulas, Graphing, Pivot Tables And Charts, Data Modeling, Databases, Data Analysis, Simulation and Simulation Software
4.8
Rating, 4.8 out of 5 stars
3K reviews
Beginner · Course · 1 - 4 Weeks
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University of Amsterdam
Data Analytics for Lean Six Sigma
Skills you'll gain: Lean Six Sigma, Statistical Hypothesis Testing, Minitab, Regression Analysis, Data Visualization Software, Probability Distribution, Descriptive Statistics, Data Analysis, Statistical Analysis, Box Plots, Analytics, Process Improvement, Statistics, Correlation Analysis, Variance Analysis
4.8
Rating, 4.8 out of 5 stars
3.4K reviews
Beginner · Course · 1 - 3 Months

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SAS
Statistics with SAS
Skills you'll gain: SAS (Software), Statistical Hypothesis Testing, Statistical Software, Statistical Analysis, Predictive Modeling, Statistical Programming, Statistical Modeling, Statistical Methods, Regression Analysis, Probability & Statistics, Data Analysis
4.7
Rating, 4.7 out of 5 stars
297 reviews
Intermediate · Course · 1 - 3 Months
Status: Free Trial
Microsoft
Microsoft Data Visualization
Skills you'll gain: Data Storytelling, Data Analysis Expressions (DAX), Data Presentation, Power BI, Data Ethics, Dashboard, Data Modeling, Data Governance, Extract, Transform, Load, Data Visualization, Interactive Data Visualization, Business Intelligence, Data Visualization Software, Data Analysis, Statistical Analysis, Correlation Analysis, Data Architecture, Data Cleansing, Data Transformation, Database Design
4.7
Rating, 4.7 out of 5 stars
89 reviews
Beginner · Professional Certificate · 3 - 6 Months
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S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research
Data Analysis
Skills you'll gain: Data Analysis, Quantitative Research, Statistical Hypothesis Testing, Sampling (Statistics), Descriptive Statistics, Business Analytics, Regression Analysis, Business Mathematics, Data-Driven Decision-Making, Statistical Analysis, Probability Distribution, Microsoft Excel, Statistical Inference, Probability, Variance Analysis, Estimation
Build toward a degree
4.8
Rating, 4.8 out of 5 stars
16 reviews
Beginner · Course · 1 - 3 Months
Status: Free Trial
University of Amsterdam
Quantitative Methods
Skills you'll gain: Scientific Methods, Research Design, Sampling (Statistics), Science and Research, Research, Research Methodologies, Surveys, Quantitative Research, Social Sciences, Experimentation, Ethical Standards And Conduct
4.7
Rating, 4.7 out of 5 stars
2.3K reviews
Mixed · Course · 1 - 3 Months
Status: Free Trial
University of Colorado Boulder
Successful Presentation
Skills you'll gain: Public Speaking, Presentations, Verbal Communication Skills, Storytelling, Drive Engagement, Communication, Persuasive Communication, Non-Verbal Communication, Business Writing, Cognitive flexibility, Composure, Adaptability, Creativity
4.8
Rating, 4.8 out of 5 stars
4.9K reviews
Beginner · Course · 1 - 4 Weeks
Status: Free Trial
University of Colorado Boulder
Statistical Learning for Data Science
Skills you'll gain: Statistical Modeling, Applied Machine Learning, Unsupervised Learning, Statistical Machine Learning, Regression Analysis, Classification And Regression Tree (CART), Statistical Methods, Data Science, Decision Tree Learning, Predictive Modeling, Statistical Analysis, Artificial Neural Networks, R Programming, Supervised Learning, Probability & Statistics, Dimensionality Reduction, Advanced Analytics, Random Forest Algorithm, Machine Learning, Sampling (Statistics)
Build toward a degree
4
Rating, 4 out of 5 stars
18 reviews
Intermediate · Specialization · 3 - 6 Months