What symbol represents the population mean?

The symbol that represents the population mean is μ (mu). In statistics, this Greek letter is universally used to denote the average of a set of values within an entire population. The population mean is a fundamental concept as it provides a measure of the central tendency of the data, indicating where the center of the data set lies.

Understanding this distinction is crucial, as it helps differentiate from related symbols: X̄ (X-bar) denotes the sample mean, which is the average calculated from a subset of the population; σ (sigma) represents the population standard deviation, a measure of variability within the population; and S represents the sample standard deviation, indicating the variability within a sample. Each of these symbols has a specific role in statistical analyses, but μ unequivocally corresponds to the population mean.