Question

Personal income. The Annual Demographic Supplement to the current Population Survey interviewed more than 128,000 people in March 2001. The Census Bureau reports that the mean income of the Hispanic males interviewed was $22,771. The mean income for the non- Hispanic white males interviewed was $41,798. Is each of the bold numbers a parameter or a statistic?

Answer 1

Each of the bold numbers is a statistic.

Explanation:

In statistical analysis, observations may either be from a sample or from a population. Samples are smaller subsets a population and hence, if chosen randomly forms a good representative of the population data.

Hence, numerical characteristics of observation which forms a population are called PARAMETER. While numerical characteristics of a given sample are called STATISTIC.

From the scenario given above, 128,000 people were interviewed, this represents a sample from the population and not the entire population. Hence, all numerical characteristic or attribute derived from the sample of 128,000 interviewees will be a statistic.