In: Statistics and Probability
Describe sampling error, making use of the following terms: sample, population, parameter, statistic.
In statistics, sampling error is defined as the difference between population parameter and the sample statistic, which was used to estimate that parameter.
Population parameter describes the whole population , where as , a statistic describes a sample of observations taken from that population. So, naturally there is a difference between the two values due to multiple data collection process biases (like response bias, interviewer bias etc.)
For example, suppose owner of a group of schools wants to do a survey on which game is students preferring more between soccer, tennis and cricket. So, they selected a group of students and asked this question . Which results in 40% voted for soccer, 30% for tennis and 30% for cricket. And when they asked each of the students , it turned out to give a bit different results. It showed 50% liked soccer,20% liked tennis and 30% liked cricket.So,it can be seen that there is a small difference between the two results. This difference occurs due to sampling error.
Sampling error is unavoidable. But one thing to keep in mind is - "Larger the sample, smaller the error".