Interval Estimate of

Population
Proportion
Workplan:
1. Routines
2. Review
3. Discussion
4. Wrap up
What is a Population Proportion?

A population proportion is a
fraction of the population that
has a certain characteristic.
For example, lets say you had 1000
people in the population and 237 of
those people have blue eyes. The
fraction of people who have blue
eyes is 237/1000.
Example question.
A veterinary clinic reports that out of 3,412
animals registered at the clinic 1,712 are dogs
and 1,012 are cats and the rest are rodents or
birds. What is the population proportion, p, for
dogs at the clinic?
Estimating p.
In the real world, you usually don’t know
facts about the entire population and so
you use sample data to estimate p. This
sample proportion is written as 𝑝 (p-hat).
Population can be taken from
populations or samples. The following
symbols will be used to determine
the confidence intervals and sample
size for proportions.
𝑝 =population proportion 𝒙
𝑝 =sample proportion 𝒑=
𝒏
𝑥=number of sample units that
posses the characteristics 𝒒=𝟏−𝒑
of interest.
n= sample size
Confidence Intervals
To construct a confidence interval about a
proportion, one must use the maximum error
of estimate, which is
𝑝𝑞
𝐸=𝑍
𝑛
 𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑓𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑠 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠
𝑚𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑚𝑒𝑒𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑎 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑛𝑝 ≥ 5 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑛𝑞 ≥ 5.

𝑝𝑞
𝑝±𝑧
𝑛
Example #1:
A sample of 350 engineering
applications included 140 women.
Find the 95% C.I of the true mean
proportion of women who applied to
the engineering program.
Solution:
Given: x = 140 and n = 350

Since C.I = 95%, critical value is 1.960.

140
𝑝= 𝑜𝑟 0.40 so 𝑞 = 0.60
350

Substitute in the formula

0.40 ∗ 0.60
0.40 ± 1.960 = 34.9% < 𝑝 < 45.1%
350
 0.40 ∗ 0.60
0.40 ± 1.960 = 𝟎. 𝟒𝟎 ± 𝟏. 𝟗𝟔𝟎 ∗ 𝟎. 𝟎𝟐𝟔
350

𝟎. 𝟒𝟎 ±0.05

0.40+0.05 = 0.45 0.35 < p < .40

0.40 – 0.05 = 0.35

Ex: 2
A random sample of 420 voters in a certain
district produced 231 voters in favor of
candidate W. Estimate the fraction of the
population favoring W and place a bound
on the error of estimate using 99%
confidence interval.
Solution:
Given: x = 231 and n = 420

Since C.I = 99%, critical value is 2.576.

231
𝑝= 𝑜𝑟 0.55 so 𝑞 = 0.45
420

Substitute in the formula

0.55 ∗ 0.45
0.55 ± 2. 576 = 𝟒𝟖. 𝟖% < 𝒑 < 𝟔𝟏. 𝟐%
420
Try!
The Municipal Government of Morong Rizal wants to
estimate the percent of citizens who are willing to pay for
mandatory drug test. In a survey among 300 citizens, 210 of
them are willing to pay for the drug test. Construct a 99%
confidence interval for the proportion of the citizens who are
willing to pay for the mandatory drug test.
Comprehension
check problem
set.
A survey of 75 randomly selected companies asked them to report
the monthly income of their vice president for finance. Assuming that
the incomes are normally distributed with a mean of ₱120,000 and a
standard deviation of ₱20,500. Determine the 95% confidence
interval estimate of the mean monthly income of all vice presidents
for finance. (we are looking for the confidence interval)

Given the following information: Confidence level = 99%, margin of

error = 85 and sd = 215. Find the minimum sample size require to
estimate an unknown population mean.
The head of a school clinic in a certain elementary school wants to
estimate the mean height of all Grade 6 pupils. She wants to be 95%
confident that the estimate of mean is accurate to within 4cm. From
the previous study, the standard deviation of the heights of the target
population was 30cm. What sample size does she need?

A sample of 20 National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA)

basketball players had an average height of 6ft with a sample SD of
0.80 foot. Find the 90% confidence interval of the true mean height
of all the players.
The University marketing Head has conducted a pre-survey of
selected students. Of 4,860 randomly selected students,
2140 have said they preferred business related course. With
90% confidence, what interpretation can be made regarding
the probability that all students want to enroll in business
related course?
The average age of a car registered in the Land
Transportation Office (LTO) is 10 years or 120 months.
Assume the standard deviation is 20 months. If a random
sample of 35 cars is selected, find the probability that the
mean of their ages is between 115 and 129 months.

A population has a mean of 75 and a standard deviation of

17.4. A sample of 35 items is randomly selected from this
population. What is the probability that the mean of this
sample lies between 72 and 79?