Estimation
Estimation It is often of interest to learn about the characteristics of a large group of elements such as individuals, households, buildings, products, parts, customers, and so on. All the elements of interest in a particular study form the population. Because of time, cost, and other considerations, data often cannot be collected from every element of the population. In such cases, a subset of the population, called a sample, is used to provide the data. Data from the sample are then used to develop estimates of the characteristics of the larger population. The process of using a sample to make inferences about a population is called statistical inference . Characteristics such as the population mean, the population variance , and the population proportion are called parameters of the population. Characteristics of the sample such as the sample mean, the sample variance, and the sample proportion are called sample statistics. There are two types of estimates: point and