Population - GCSE Maths Definition

In mathematics, the term 'population' refers to the whole set of items, people, animals, or measurements that you are interested in studying or collecting data about. It is often impractical to work with the whole 'population' and so when collecting data, we would take a 'sample'. A 'population' does not have to refer to a country, just 'the whole' in the context of the question. For example, for a study on the health of 16-year-old children, the population does not have to be every child in the world, or even the UK, but could be 'every 16-year-old child that goes to a My High School' - and then we could take a 'sample' of 16-year-old children from 'My High School'.