The Demopædia Encyclopedia on Population is under heavy modernization and maintenance. Outputs could look bizarre, sorry for the temporary inconvenience

Multilingual Demographic Dictionary, second unified edition, English volume

Significant difference

Multilingual Demographic Dictionary, second unified edition, English vol.
Revision as of 05:14, 5 February 2010 by NBBot (talk | contribs) (Etienne van de Walle et al., second 1982 edition)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to: navigation, search
Significant difference  (SIGNIFICANT difference)


A population parameter 1 is a numerical value that characterizes a population. Statistical estimation 2 is the name given to the procedure by which the values of such parameters are estimated from the sample. Such estimates are subject to sampling errors 3 and a measure of the magnitude of the sampling error is generally given by the standard error 4. Sometimes a confidence interval 5 is associated with an estimate to show the limits within which the estimated quantity may be expected to lie with a pre-determined probability. A difference between two values is referred to as a significant difference 6 when the probability that it is due to chance is less than a given value which is called the level of significance 7. Thus a difference would be significant at the 5 percent level if the probability that it could have arisen by chance is less than 0.05. In addition to sampling errors, observation errors 8 or response errors 8 also affect estimates. These errors usually include interviewer biases 9 which are systematic errors introduced by the interviewers when the basic data are collected.

More...