Point Estimate

Point estimates are single numeric quantities (i.e. "points") that are computed from sample data for the purpose of providing some statistical approximation to population parameters of interest. For example, suppose surveys were being designed to estimate the following population quantities: (a) the proportion of teenagers within a school district who consumed at least one alcoholic beverage last year, (b) the mean number of candy bars consumed last week by county hospital nurses within a state, (c) the total number of text messages sent by cell phone customers of a particular cell phone provider within the last month, (d) the correlation between education and annual expenditures on magazine subscriptions within the past year for U.S. citizens. In every case, a single numeric quantity, or statistic, can ...