Question

determine whether the data set is a population or a sample. explain your reasoning.
the age of each member of the house of representatives.

choose the correct answer below.

a. population, because it is a collection of ages for all members of the house of representatives.

b. sample, because it is a collection of ages for some members of the house of representatives.

c. sample, because it is a collection of ages for all members of the house of representatives, but there are more departments in the government.

d. population, because it is a subset of all government officials.

Explanation:

To determine if it's a population or sample, recall: a population is the entire group of interest, a sample is a subset. Here, the data is the age of each (all) member of the House of Representatives. Option A says it's a population as it's all members' ages. Option B is wrong (it's all, not some). Option C is wrong (population is all of the group of interest, not about other departments). Option D is wrong (a population isn't a subset of a larger group in this context; the group here is House of Representatives, not all government officials). So A is correct.

Answer:

A. Population, because it is a collection of ages for all members of the House of Representatives.