A numerical value describing a population is called a

A numerical value describing a population is called a

• A. Parameter
• B. Statistic
• C. Descriptive Statistics
• D. Inferential Statistics

Answer: (A)

The central idea here is distinguishing descriptors of who you’re talking about: the entire population versus just a sample. A numerical value that describes the population is called a parameter. For example, the average height of every student in a school is a parameter because it pertains to the whole population of students. In contrast, a statistic is a numerical value that describes a sample, not the entire group. Descriptive statistics are techniques for summarizing data (like computing the mean or standard deviation) and can apply to either a full dataset or a sample, but they’re not the term for the population descriptor itself. Inferential statistics uses information from a sample to make inferences about the population, which is a different purpose from naming the population’s descriptor. So the term for a numerical value describing a population is parameter.

The central idea here is distinguishing descriptors of who you’re talking about: the entire population versus just a sample. A numerical value that describes the population is called a parameter. For example, the average height of every student in a school is a parameter because it pertains to the whole population of students.

In contrast, a statistic is a numerical value that describes a sample, not the entire group. Descriptive statistics are techniques for summarizing data (like computing the mean or standard deviation) and can apply to either a full dataset or a sample, but they’re not the term for the population descriptor itself. Inferential statistics uses information from a sample to make inferences about the population, which is a different purpose from naming the population’s descriptor.

So the term for a numerical value describing a population is parameter.