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 ...