Determine whether the number describes a population parameter ...

Question

Determine whether the number describes a population parameter or a sample statistic. Explain your reasoning.

In January 2021, 54% of the governors of the 50 states in the United States were Republicans. (Source: National Governors Association)

Accepted Answer

Hello there. Today we're gonna solve the following practice problem together. So first off, let us read the problem and highlight all the key pieces of information that we need to use in order to solve this problem. A survey conducted among all employees of a company found that 38% prefer flexible working hours. Is this 38% a population parameter or a sample statistic? Justify your answer. Awesome. So it appears for this particular prom we're asked to take the information that is provided to us by the prom itself, and we're asked to determine what this 38% is considered as. Is this 38% considered a population parameter or a sample statistic? And then we're asked to justify our answer. So now that we know what we're trying to solve for, let's take a moment to read off our multiple choice answers to see what our final answer might be. A is sample statistic because it is based on a random sample. B is population parameter, because it represents all employees. C is sample statistic because it is collected from a subset of employees and D is population parameter because it is an estimate based on partial data. Awesome. So, in order to solve this problem, first off, we need to recall and understand the concepts of a population parameter and a sample statistic by using their definition. So we need to recall the definition of a population parameter and a sample statistic. So I'll call population parameter PP for short and sample statistic as SS. So a population parameter, as we should recall, is a value that represents a characteristic of an entire population. Whereas a sample statistic is a value that represents a characteristic of a subset or sample of the population. So it's important to note that the difference between a sample and a population is as follows. So let's say for example, if a population of 500. And if we were to take a sample of that whole population of 500, the sample would be 250, so it would be a piece of the population, but not the whole population. So once again, a sample would be like 250, whereas the entirety of the population as a whole would be 500. So with that in mind. Our second step is we need to identify our key information that we need to use in order to solve this particular problem. So we need to note and recall that the prompt states that the survey was conducted among all employees of the company. That's very important. It says all. Employees, that's very important, and the 38% will represent the proportion of employees who prefer flexible working hours. So that means our third and final, sorry, our third and final step to help us solve for our final answer. So our third and final step once again is to make our final conclusions. So as you should recall, since the data is collected from the entire The population of employees as a whole, rather than just a sample of these employees, the 38% will represent a population parameter. So that will mean our final answer without a doubt has to be multiple choice answer letter B, which once again states population parameter because it represents all employees. And that's it. We've officially solved for this problem. Thank you so much for watching. Hopefully that helped, and I can't wait to see you in the next video. Bye.

Determine whether the number describes a population parameter or a sample statistic. Explain your reasoning.
In January 2021, 54% of the governors of the 50 states in the United States were Republicans. (Source: National Governors Association)

Key Concepts

Population Parameter

Sample Statistic

Distinction Between Parameter and Statistic

Watch next