LESSON 4:

COMPUTING THE
POINT ESTIMATE OF
THE POPULATION
PROPORTION P
 EXAMPLE 1
Jason noted that every weekend,
a group of athletes jog in a nearby
park. On a particular day, he
observed that there were 20 runners
and tat 8 of them were female. He
observed the joggers for six weeks,
noting their number and their
gender.
WEEK 1st 2nd 3rd 4t 5t 6t

MALE 12 15 12 10 8 9

FEMAL 8 10 6 10 12 15
E

TOTAL 20 25 18 20 20 24
 SOLUTION
TO DETERMINE THE
PROPORTION OF THE
FEMALE RUNNERS,
SIMPLY COMPUTE AS
FOLLOWS:
WEEK 1st 2nd 3rd 4t 5t 6t

MALE 12 15 12 10 8 9

FEMAL 8 10 6 10 12 15
E

TOTAL 20 25 18 20 20 24
PROPOR 8/20= 10/25= 6/18=0 10/20= 12/20= 15/24=
TION 0.4 0.4 .33 0.5 0.6 0.625
PERCEN 40% 40% 33% 50% 60% 62.5%
TAGE
 Percentage expression 40% is also called a
PROPORTION.

Percentages are commonly used When

reporting frequencies of subsets of populations.

Proportions represent PROBABILITIES.

TAKE NOTE: the proportions maybe

obtained from samples or from
populations.
 SYMBOLS

n= numbers of observations in a simple

random sample.
p= sample proportion ( read“p hat”)
p= population proportion
p= Number of desired outcomes
Number of sample elements
 EXAMPLE 2
Restaurant regularly ask customers to
accomplish questionnaires on the kind of
service that their staff render. Suppose 1,200
people are randomly chosen from a target
population and are asked if they like the
services of a specific restaurant. There are 908
respondents who like the service. What is the
estimate of the true proportion of all
customers who like the service of the
restaurant?
 EXAMPLE 3

Nora conducted a survey for a fast food restaurant

owner who wanted to know the level of acceptability of
a new food combo among customers. A tally of the
frequencies yielded the following results.

Frequency
Very acceptable ( VA) 182
Acceptable (A) 74
Proportion is a fraction expression
where the favorable response is
in the numerator and the total of
respondents is in the denominator.
The basic operation involves
division.
 EXAMPLE 4

In a job satisfaction survey among faculty

members in a university, 400 employees were
asked if they were satisfied with their jobs.
There 205 who responded YES. What
proportion of the population is this? What
proportion responded NO?
 EXAMPLE 5

In a survey of 500 students, 328 like to take

coffee. Estimate the true population
proportion p and q where “p hat” is the
proportion of those who liked the coffee based
on the same sample.