statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a s ...

, in the theory relating to sampling from finite populations, the sampling probability (also known as inclusion probability) of an element or member of the population, is its

probability Probability is a branch of mathematics and statistics concerning events and numerical descriptions of how likely they are to occur. The probability of an event is a number between 0 and 1; the larger the probability, the more likely an e ...

of becoming part of the sample during the drawing of a single sample. For example, in simple random sampling the probability of a particular unit

i

to be selected into the sample is :

p_ = \frac = \frac

where

n

is the sample size and

N

is the population size. Each element of the population may have a different probability of being included in the sample. The inclusion probability is also termed the "first-order inclusion probability" to distinguish it from the "second-order inclusion probability", i.e. the probability of including a pair of elements. Generally, the first-order inclusion probability of the ''i''th element of the population is denoted by the symbol π_''i'' and the second-order inclusion probability that a pair consisting of the ''i''th and ''j''th element of the population that is sampled is included in a sample during the drawing of a single sample is denoted by π_''ij''.

See also

References

Further reading