The population mean is the mean calculated over every member of the set of subjects being studied. It is usually not available and a survey is used to find an estimate for the population mean. The mean value of the variable in question, calculated from only the subjects included in the sample (or survey) is the sample mean. Provided some basic statistical requirements are met, the sample mean is a "good" estimate of the population mean.
Chat with our AI personalities
Zero
Sampling bias.
Random error.
A parameter is a number describing something about a whole population. eg population mean or mode. A statistic is something that describes a sample (eg sample mean)and is used as an estimator for a population parameter. (because samples should represent populations!)
The answer depends on the underlying variance (standard deviation) in the population, the size of the sample and the procedure used to select the sample.