Will the sampling distribution of x ̅ always be approximately normally distributed?

Answer 1

The sampling distribution of the sample mean (( \bar{x} )) will be approximately normally distributed if the sample size is sufficiently large, typically due to the Central Limit Theorem. This theorem states that regardless of the population's distribution, the sampling distribution of the sample mean will tend to be normal as the sample size increases, generally n ≥ 30 is considered adequate. However, if the population distribution is already normal, the sampling distribution of ( \bar{x} ) will be normally distributed for any sample size.