Answer to Question #159825 in Statistics and Probability for Titomi

Question

• A researcher measured behavior among all individuals in some small population. Are inferential statistics necessary to draw conclusions concerning this population? Explain

Answer 1

Inferential statistics are not necessary to draw conclusions concerning this population.

To answer this question let's first look at the definition of inferential statistics. In inferential statistics, you take data from samples and make generalizations about a population.

In the question, we can already access the population (however small or big it is), and therefore we need not take samples from this population to make generalizations about the population. Hence, there is no need for inferential statistics when the descriptive statistics on the entire population is known.