Populations, Measurements, and Parameters

Abstract

Statistics may be described as the science of description of measurements on natural populations (Kendall and Stuart, 1977, pp. 1–2). This brief description of statistics requires some amplification. In general, a population S is a nonempty set, and a subpopulation V of S is a nonempty subset of S. In statistical practice, a population of interest is a natural population. In many examples in this chapter, the population studied is the set of 51 American states, where District of Columbia is regarded as a state for the analyses in this book. In other cases, the population of interest is the set of all times in the year 1880. The set of all times in 1880 is a subpopulation of the set of all times in the nineteenth century.