A statistical population is any group of individuals who are the subject of a study, meaning that almost anything can make up a population so long as the individuals can be grouped together by a common feature, or sometimes two common features. For example, in a study that is trying to determine the mean weight of all 20-year-old males in the United States, the population would be all 20-year-old males in the United States. StatisticsShowHowto.com explains a fun scenario where you resist temptation and walk into a candy store, where the owner might be offering a few samples of her products. These samples provide measurements of the individuals that tell scientists about corresponding measurements in the population, which can then be repeated and compared with different statistical samples to more accurately describe the whole population. It is a smaller group drawn from the population that has the characteristics of the entire population. In statistics, the word takes on a slightly different meaning. In statistics, the term population is used to describe the subjects of a particular study—everything or everyone who is the subject of a statistical observation. The information obtained from the statistical sample allows statisticians to develop hypotheses about the larger population. Courtney K. Taylor, Ph.D., is a professor of mathematics at Anderson University and the author of "An Introduction to Abstract Algebra. Inferential statistics enables you to make an educated guess about a population parameter based on a statistic computed from a sample randomly drawn from that population. The question of which population subsets should be selected, then, is highly important in the study of statistics, and there are a variety of different ways to select a sample, many of which will not produce any meaningful results. A population is the opposite to a sample, which is a fraction or percentage of a group. There are many ways that you can use population data in statistics. Another relevant study might be a look at all primary grade school children who drink soda. The inclusion of older children and/or those who don't drink soda pop would skew your results and likely make the study unusable. Examples of populations can be the number of newborn babies in North America, the total number of tech startups in Asia, the average height of all CFA exam candidates in the world, the mean weight of U.S. taxpayers, and so on. "You could end up with data that you do not need because your target population was not clearly defined, notes the statistics bureau. Learn the Difference Between a Parameter and a Statistic, The Difference Between Descriptive and Inferential Statistics, Differences Between Probability and Statistics, Convenience Sample Definition and Examples in Statistics, B.A., Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry, Anderson University. The sum of the populations for the five race-alone-or-in-combination groups adds to more than the total population because individuals may report more than one race. What is a Population in Statistics? Types: A T distribution is a type of probability function that is appropriate for estimating population parameters for small sample sizes or unknown variances. The standard deviation is the variation in the population inferred from the variation in the sample. The amount by which the world's population is expected to grow by the middle of the 21st century. In statistics as well as in quantitative methodology, the set of data are collected and selected from a statistical population with the help of some defined procedures. A statistic is a characteristic of a sample. A statistical population is a set of entities from which statistical inferences are to be drawn, often based on a random sample taken from the population. ", The Different Types of Sampling Designs in Sociology. Due to constraints of resources, time, and accessibility, it is nearly impossible to perform a measurement on every subject. A statistical population is any group of individuals who are the subject of a study, meaning that almost anything can make up a population so long as the individuals can be grouped together by a common feature, or sometimes two common features. Since the characteristics of every individual in a population cannot be measured due to constraints of time, resources, and accessibility, a sample of the population is taken. For this reason, scientists who use statistics also study subpopulations and take statistical samples of small portions of larger populations to more accurately analyze the full spectrum of behaviors and characteristics of the population at large. A population can thus be said to be an aggregate observation of subjects grouped together by a common feature. But since you are working with the true population you already know the true value. UK population continues to grow but at a slower rate than previously. When studying statistics, they can be categorized into two main branches of statistics: descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. A statistic is a characteristic of a sample. Populations. Though high by industrialized country standards, this is below the world average annual rate of 1.1%. In statistics, a population is a set of similar items or events which is of interest for some question or experiment. The population of interest is the population you are trying to draw an inference about from the collected data sets. By contrast, the population in a separate study that asked how many men under 25 lived in Argentina might be all men who are 24 and under who live in Argentina regardless of citizenship. A population can be large or small depending on what you are interested in studying. A population can be defined by any number of characteristics within a group that statisticians use to draw conclusions about the subjects in a study. A parameter is data that describes the entire population, while a statistic is data that describes a sample of that population. A parameter is a characteristic of a population. That would require sampling from hundreds of jars, and likely would make you quite sick. Click on the name of the country or dependency for current estimates (live population clock), historical data, and … For this reason, scientists are constantly on the lookout for potential subpopulations because they typically obtain better results when recognizing the mixture of types of individuals in the populations being studied. Aging Population in the U.S. ACS 2011-2015 These tables provide detailed social, economic, and health statistics on the older population at national, state, and county levels. the set of all possible hands in a game of poker). The United States is the third-most populous country in the world, with an estimated population of 330,052,960 as of August 2, 2020. The population mean and population standard deviation are represented by the Greek letters µ and σ, respectively. In statistics, a population is the entire pool from which a statistical sample is drawn. A two-tailed test is a statistical test in which the critical area of a distribution is two-sided and tests whether a sample is greater than or less than a certain range of values. Instead, the manufacturer looks at just 50 pairs (a sample) to draw a conclusion about whether the entire population is likely to have been stitched correctly.