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The sample mean and sample covariance are not robust statistics, meaning that they are sensitive to outliers. As robustness is often a desired trait, particularly in real-world applications, robust alternatives may prove desirable, notably quantile -based statistics such as the sample median for location, [ 4 ] and interquartile range (IQR) for ...
For example, the sample mean is an unbiased estimator of the population mean. This means that the expected value of the sample mean equals the true population mean. [1] A descriptive statistic is used to summarize the sample data. A test statistic is used in statistical hypothesis testing. A single statistic can be used for multiple purposes ...
The arithmetic mean (or simply mean or average) of a list of numbers, is the sum of all of the numbers divided by their count.Similarly, the mean of a sample ,, …,, usually denoted by ¯, is the sum of the sampled values divided by the number of items in the sample.
In statistics, quality assurance, and survey methodology, sampling is the selection of a subset or a statistical sample (termed sample for short) of individuals from within a statistical population to estimate characteristics of the whole population. The subset is meant to reflect the whole population, and statisticians attempt to collect ...
A "parameter" is to a population as a "statistic" is to a sample; that is to say, a parameter describes the true value calculated from the full population (such as the population mean), whereas a statistic is an estimated measurement of the parameter based on a sample (such as the sample mean). Thus a "statistical parameter" can be more ...
Like the statistical mean and median, the mode is a way of expressing, in a (usually) single number, important information about a random variable or a population. The numerical value of the mode is the same as that of the mean and median in a normal distribution, and it may be very different in highly skewed distributions.
The sample mean is thus more efficient than the sample median in this example. However, there may be measures by which the median performs better. For example, the median is far more robust to outliers, so that if the Gaussian model is questionable or approximate, there may advantages to using the median (see Robust statistics).
The sample size is an important feature of any empirical study in which the goal is to make inferences about a population from a sample. In practice, the sample size used in a study is usually determined based on the cost, time, or convenience of collecting the data, and the need for it to offer sufficient statistical power. In complex studies ...