Population and Sample

Population

Most commonly population is known as group of people living in a certain area. But in statistics, a population is termed as a set of similar items or events which are concerned to a particular experiment or analysis. Population in statistics can be both real and hypothetical depending upon the interest of required data. Examples: human beings, readings from a measurement device, house holds etc.

Sample

In easy way, sample is a subset of population taken to study and analyze the required results for whole number of population. It can be collected and/or selected from population data by a defined procedure. the major elements of sample are sample points, sampling units or observation. Sample is also termed as sub-population.

As population is huge, time consuming and lengthy it is nearly impossible to analyze each and every information required. So, sample is oftenly used to depict and get the preferred outcome of population. Beacause samples are easily manageable, the actual value of any statistical data can be determined. That is why known value of sample is used to find the unknown value of population parameter.