ABSTRACT
Introduction to Inferential Statistics The last four chapters covering the elements of descriptive statistics, probability, and the central limit theorem lay the foundation to begin inferential statistics. As we should know by now, inferK ential statistics involves making predictions about population values that may not really be known. In practice, policy analysts are always interested in drawing valid conclusions about large groups of individuals or observations. Most of the time, this is done with incomplete information, beK cause it is impractical to look at the whole population; thus, we do the next best thing. We look at a sample from the population and infer what the population might look like. The analyst is inferK ring certain facts about the population from results found in the sample. This process is known as statistical inference.
