What term describes numbers that describe data for an entire population?

• A. Parameters
• B. Statistics
• C. Estimates
• D. P-values

Answer: (A)

Numbers that describe data for an entire population are called parameters. They summarize characteristics like the population mean, proportion, or variance and are fixed properties of the population, though we usually don’t know their exact values and estimate them from samples. In contrast, statistics describe data from a sample, estimates are derived values used to infer parameters, and a p-value is a probability used in hypothesis testing. So the best term for describing the whole population is parameters.