Population & Sampling Flashcards

All 6 cards in this deck

What is a population in statistics?

The whole group that is being investigated.

What is a sample?

A smaller part of the population that is selected and studied.

What is a random sample?

A sample in which every member of the population has an equal chance of being chosen.

Give one limitation of using a sample to describe a population.

The sample may not be representative (it may be biased), so results are only estimates.

True or false? A small sample is just as reliable as a large sample for describing a population.

False. A larger sample is more likely to represent the population.

What are the steps to estimate a number in a population from a sample?

e.g. 12 of a sample of 50 people are left-handed; the population is 800

1. Find the sample proportion: $\frac{12}{50}$
2. Multiply by the population size: $\frac{12}{50} \times 800$
3. Estimate $= 192$ people