Which term refers to the set of all individuals of interest in a study?

• A. Population
• B. Sample
• C. Parameter
• D. Statistic

Answer: (A)

Think about the group you want to learn about. The set of all individuals of interest in a study is called the population. The population is the entire target group you want to understand, whether it’s all adults in a city, all students in a school, or every item produced in a batch. Because studying every member is often impractical, researchers collect data from a subset called the sample. A parameter is a numerical feature that describes the population (like the true population mean), while a statistic is the corresponding numerical feature calculated from the sample (like the sample mean). So the term that refers to the whole group of interest is population.