Data science is an interdisciplinary field that combines statistics, computer science, and domain knowledge to extract insights from data and enable data-driven decision-making. It involves defining problems, collecting and cleaning data, modeling, evaluating, and deploying models for practical use, while utilizing various tools and technologies. The importance of data science lies in its ability to harness growing data volumes to improve business efficiency, innovation, and profitability across diverse applications such as healthcare, finance, and business analytics.