A population consists of all of the members of a group of interest. A sample is a subset of the population.
Population: Residents of New Jersey Sample: Residents of Ocean County
Practice makes perfect
A population consists of all of the members of a group of interest. Because it might be unrealistic to consider every member of a population, a sample is sometimes selected to represent the population. A sample is a subset of the population. The sample can then be analyzed to draw conclusions about the entire population.
Let's think about our situation. The state of New Jersey consists of many counties. This means that the population consists of residents of New Jersey and the sample consists of residents of Ocean county.
