A school has 1,200 students. To find the proportion of its students who exercise regularly, the fitness club questions 150 students chosen at random. In this study, the population is
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → all the 1,200 students of the school
The population is the whole group about which we want to draw conclusions. Here the conclusion is about the proportion of all the students of the school who exercise regularly, so the population is all the 1,200 students.
The 150 students actually questioned are only a part of this group: they form the sample.
Why the other options are incorrect
Option (1) the 150 students questioned — Incorrect. These 150 students are the sample, the subset that is actually studied.
Option (3) the students who exercise regularly — Incorrect. These students are only the group being counted; the proportion is found out of all the students of the school.
Option (4) the members of the fitness club — Incorrect. The club only carries out the survey; its members are not the group the conclusion is about.