CHAPTER 3: ELEMENTS OF THE SAMPLING PROBLEM 3.1.

INTRODUCTION The amount of information per observation from a population depends upon the amount of variation in that population. The information provided by a sample depends upon the sample size, as well as the population variation. 3.2. TECHNICAL TERMS An "element" is an object on which a measurement is taken. Sometimes we refer to elements as "individuals" or "units". A "population" is a collection of elements about which we wish to make an inference. The population is sometimes called the "parent" population, i.e., the source of the sample. This terminology distinguishes it from a derived population such as a sampling distribution, a distribution of all possible values of some statistic such as the sample mean. "Sampling units" are no overlapping collections of elements from the population that cover the entire population. A sampling unit may contain one, none or several elements. Example: The elements are registered voters, and the sampling units are households.