Inductive/Inferential statistics allows the researcher to go beyond describing the data collected from the sample and make inferences about the population based on the sample. It is in Inductive/Inferential statistics that the so-called “statistical tests” are used.

POPULATION is understood as the set of all elements represented by the SAMPLE that was selected for the research. Thus, we can have the population of inhabitants of the city of Bauru, the population of students from FOB-USP, the population of 12-year-old male children, the population of specimens of metallic alloy X, the population of guinea pigs treated by a medicine, etc.

It only makes sense to want to conclude about the POPULATION based on a SAMPLE if the sample is really capable of representing the population well.