Question

Using the sample to represent the population.

Suppose that in a random sample of voters, 70% favor gun control. Is it okay to then say that 70% of the population favor gun control? Why or why not?

Answer 1

Yes, one can say that 70% of the population favour gun control.

We know that if the sample is randomly obtained then it is always an unbiased estimate of the population mean but sample size should be inadequate. I mean if the population size in million or billion and we can't take a random sample of size 100. Then the statement about the population based on a random sample is not correct. Sample size should be large i.e. for this case sample size should be in at least lakhs.

Thus, if a random sample of voters tells us 70% favour gun control. Then we can say that 70% of the population favour gun control