Which statement best describes a statistic?

Which statement best describes a statistic?

• A. A descriptive value based on a sample used to estimate a population parameter.
• B. A fixed descriptive value of the entire population.
• C. A measure of sampling error.
• D. A descriptive value of a population.

Answer: (C)

A statistic is a descriptive value calculated from sample data and used to estimate a population parameter. It varies from one sample to another, while the population parameter is fixed but usually unknown. So the best description emphasizes that a statistic comes from a sample and serves to estimate the population parameter. The other ideas describe a population parameter itself (a fixed descriptive value for the whole population), or refer to sampling error (how far a sample result might be from the true parameter), which is not the statistic itself, or describe a population value rather than a sample-derived one.

A statistic is a descriptive value calculated from sample data and used to estimate a population parameter. It varies from one sample to another, while the population parameter is fixed but usually unknown. So the best description emphasizes that a statistic comes from a sample and serves to estimate the population parameter. The other ideas describe a population parameter itself (a fixed descriptive value for the whole population), or refer to sampling error (how far a sample result might be from the true parameter), which is not the statistic itself, or describe a population value rather than a sample-derived one.