Econometrics is the application of statistical or quantitative methods to understand economic issues and test theories, and models. It is the study of economic models, mathematical statistics, and economic data. It is also a set of tools which can verify or disprove economic theory using real-world data. Econometrics is an essential part of university economics degrees.
http://www.linuxlinks.com/article/20100619070210831/Econometrics.html-- I use R quite often to do astronomical statistics.. my friend has a nice page all about it:
http://www.sr.bham.ac.uk/~ajrs/R/r-gallery.html