Difference between Sample and Population Proportion - Assignment Example

The sample proportion is the best point estimate of the population proportion.
A sample proportion may be appropriate to use when the population is infinite, timely results are required (examining the whole population will take much more time than a sample), the budget is limited (the cost of examining a few individuals will be low as compared to the whole population), or sensitive information (such as sexual harassment in a large organization) is examined.
A population proportion may be appropriate to use when the population is small, the required sample size is close to the population, the database already exists (if the data are on disk, we can examine 100% of the cases), or there is a legal requirement (The 2010 decennial population census).
 
M6 Confidence Interval Discussion
Explain the large sample confidence interval and its importance in biostatistics.
The large sample confidence interval is a range (or an interval) of values used to estimate the population characteristic. The interval is estimated using sample data. A confidence interval is associated with a confidence level (such as 95% or 99%) that gives us the success rate of the procedure used to construct the confidence interval.
A large sample confidence interval can be constructed for a single proportion or a difference in proportions.

The large sample confidence interval can be used for making inferences from biological experiments. For example, suppose we take a sample of seeds for any given plant and count the number of germinated seeds. Now, from this sample proportion, we can give an estimate of the population proportion for the number of seeds that will be germinated by using the large sample confidence interval for a single proportion procedure.