Statistics Terminology

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Population

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the group that a set of data is intended to describe

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Parameter

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a value calculated using all the data from a population

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Census

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a survey of the entire population

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Sample

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smaller subset of population; ideally representative of the whole

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Statistic

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a value calculated using the data from a sample

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Random Sample

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a sample in which each member of the population has an equal probability of being chosen

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Sampling Variability

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natural variation of samples; often unavoidable

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Stratified Sampling

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• population is divided into subgroups, random samples are taken from each subgroup proportional to the population

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Quota Sampling

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• samples collected in each subgroup until quota is met

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Cluster Sampling

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population divided into subgroups, a set of subgroups are selected to be in sample