What is the Difference Between Population and Sample? If we consider the general concept, ‘Population’ indicates a large group of people. In this instance, in the field of statistics population termed as a large group that consists of elements having at least one common feature. Another one is “Sample”, which is a subset of the term “Population” that is selected to represent the entire group.
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During the preparation of your dissertation paper, term paper, class assignment, class presentation; you might be required to mention the details of both the sample and population. Many students open fail to properly differences between the concept of population and sample. Along with this, sometimes they also face a very common situation, where this listed basic knowledge will play quite a fruitful role to mitigate their situation. But exactly what is the main concept of population and sample letter mentioning here. Before clarifying the concept of population and sample, it’s important to know the definition of statistics, so we may begin with the definition of statistics.
Statistics is concerned with scientific methods for collecting, organizing, summarizing, presenting and analyzing sample data as well as drawing valid conclusions about population characteristics and making reasonable decisions on the basis of such analysis
The Most Common 7 (Seven) Differences between Population and Sample are presented here.
| S.N. | Population | Sample |
| 1 | An aggregate of all individuals all items ( actual or possible) defined on some common characteristics is called population. | A small but representative part with the finite number of individuals or items of a population is called a sample. |
| 2 | It may be finite or infinite. | It is always finite. |
| 3 | Capital letters are used to denote population size usually by N. | Small letters are used to denote sample size usually by n. |
| 4 | The population size is always greater than the sample size. | The sample size is always smaller than the population size. |
| 5 | Census survey deals with the population. | Sample Survey deals with the sample. |
| 6 | the population is considered as the universal set. | This is a subset of the population. |
| 7 | The statistical constants of the population are easily referred to as parameters. | The statistical measures obtained from the sample observations have been termed as statistics. |
These 7 (seven) differences are easy to remind. We believe, it must be helpful for you while you are preparing yourself for class presentation!
In spite of the many differences, it must be accepted that the sample and population are related to each other, i.e. sample is drawn from the population. Even, the main objective of the sample is to create statistical inferences about the population. The greater the size of the sample, the higher is the level of accuracy of generalization.
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