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This is a very basic, dumb question, but I couldn't find an answer, and on the top of that I'm generally suspicious of common sense/intuition.

I feel like it is "cheating" when saying "80% of people in the sample liked the banana flavor" when there are less than 100 people in the whole sample. But maybe I'm wrong, hence my question. I see at least two problems:

  1. it could be somehow misleading if I omit to mention the sample size

  2. there are percentages impossible to attain, for instance it's impossible to have any percentage between 0 and 10% if there are just 10 people in the sample

Am I overcautious here, and is it actually OK to use percentages like that? Or is it really a problem? Does it have other problems I did not identify?

I'm not sure why the question has been closed (the message at the top says it's not about a question about statistics, is it a mistake? Should I post it on the mathematics stackexchange instead, if I understand correctly the help page?). Someone in the answers sayscommented that it depends on the context, but I don't have a specific example in mind so my question is "it depends on what?". When is it fine to report percentages with a sample size less than 100, and when is it not fine?

TL;DR: If I understand correctly the current answers, it is always fine to report percentages as long as I report the sample size too. Not reporting the sample size along percentages is always problematic. Is that statement correct, or are there additional things to consider? Thank you.

This is a very basic, dumb question, but I couldn't find an answer, and on the top of that I'm generally suspicious of common sense/intuition.

I feel like it is "cheating" when saying "80% of people in the sample liked the banana flavor" when there are less than 100 people in the whole sample. But maybe I'm wrong, hence my question. I see at least two problems:

  1. it could be somehow misleading if I omit to mention the sample size

  2. there are percentages impossible to attain, for instance it's impossible to have any percentage between 0 and 10% if there are just 10 people in the sample

Am I overcautious here, and is it actually OK to use percentages like that? Or is it really a problem? Does it have other problems I did not identify?

I'm not sure why the question has been closed (the message at the top says it's not about a question about statistics, is it a mistake? Should I post it on the mathematics stackexchange instead, if I understand correctly the help page?). Someone in the answers says it depends on the context, but I don't have a specific example in mind so my question is "it depends on what?". When is it fine to report percentages with a sample size less than 100, and when is it not fine?

TL;DR: If I understand correctly the current answers, it is always fine to report percentages as long as I report the sample size too. Not reporting the sample size along percentages is always problematic. Is that statement correct, or are there additional things to consider? Thank you.

This is a very basic, dumb question, but I couldn't find an answer, and on the top of that I'm generally suspicious of common sense/intuition.

I feel like it is "cheating" when saying "80% of people in the sample liked the banana flavor" when there are less than 100 people in the whole sample. But maybe I'm wrong, hence my question. I see at least two problems:

  1. it could be somehow misleading if I omit to mention the sample size

  2. there are percentages impossible to attain, for instance it's impossible to have any percentage between 0 and 10% if there are just 10 people in the sample

Am I overcautious here, and is it actually OK to use percentages like that? Or is it really a problem? Does it have other problems I did not identify?

Someone commented that it depends on the context, but I don't have a specific example in mind so my question is "it depends on what?". When is it fine to report percentages with a sample size less than 100, and when is it not fine?

TL;DR: If I understand correctly the current answers, it is always fine to report percentages as long as I report the sample size too. Not reporting the sample size along percentages is always problematic. Is that statement correct, or are there additional things to consider? Thank you.

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Donphag
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This is a very basic, dumb question, but I couldn't find an answer, and on the top of that I'm generally suspicious of common sense/intuition.

I feel like it is "cheating" when saying "80% of people in the sample liked the banana flavor" when there are less than 100 people in the whole sample. But maybe I'm wrong, hence my question. I see at least two problems:

  1. it could be somehow misleading if I omit to mention the sample size

  2. there are percentages impossible to attain, for instance it's impossible to have any percentage between 0 and 10% if there are just 10 people in the sample

Am I overcautious here, and is it actually OK to use percentages like that? Or is it really a problem? Does it have other problems I did not identify?

I'm not sure why the question has been closed (the message at the top says it's not about a question about statistics, is it a mistake? Should I post it on the mathematics stackexchange instead, if I understand correctly the help page?). Someone in the answers says it depends on the context, but I don't have a specific example in mind so my question is "it depends on what?". When is it fine to report percentages with a sample size less than 100, and when is it not fine?

TL;DR: If I understand correctly the current answers, it is always fine to report percentages as long as I report the sample size too. Not reporting the sample size along percentages is always problematic. Is that statement correct, or are there additional things to consider? Thank you.

This is a very basic, dumb question, but I couldn't find an answer, and on the top of that I'm generally suspicious of common sense/intuition.

I feel like it is "cheating" when saying "80% of people in the sample liked the banana flavor" when there are less than 100 people in the whole sample. But maybe I'm wrong, hence my question. I see at least two problems:

  1. it could be somehow misleading if I omit to mention the sample size

  2. there are percentages impossible to attain, for instance it's impossible to have any percentage between 0 and 10% if there are just 10 people in the sample

Am I overcautious here, and is it actually OK to use percentages like that? Or is it really a problem? Does it have other problems I did not identify?

I'm not sure why the question has been closed (the message at the top says it's not about a question statistics, is it a mistake? Should I post it on the mathematics stackexchange instead, if I understand correctly the help page?). Someone in the answers says it depends on the context, but I don't have a specific example in mind so my question is "it depends on what?". When is it fine to report percentages with a sample size less than 100, and when is it not fine?

TL;DR: If I understand correctly the current answers, it is always fine to report percentages as long as I report the sample size too. Not reporting the sample size along percentages is always problematic. Is that statement correct, or are there additional things to consider? Thank you.

This is a very basic, dumb question, but I couldn't find an answer, and on the top of that I'm generally suspicious of common sense/intuition.

I feel like it is "cheating" when saying "80% of people in the sample liked the banana flavor" when there are less than 100 people in the whole sample. But maybe I'm wrong, hence my question. I see at least two problems:

  1. it could be somehow misleading if I omit to mention the sample size

  2. there are percentages impossible to attain, for instance it's impossible to have any percentage between 0 and 10% if there are just 10 people in the sample

Am I overcautious here, and is it actually OK to use percentages like that? Or is it really a problem? Does it have other problems I did not identify?

I'm not sure why the question has been closed (the message at the top says it's not about a question about statistics, is it a mistake? Should I post it on the mathematics stackexchange instead, if I understand correctly the help page?). Someone in the answers says it depends on the context, but I don't have a specific example in mind so my question is "it depends on what?". When is it fine to report percentages with a sample size less than 100, and when is it not fine?

TL;DR: If I understand correctly the current answers, it is always fine to report percentages as long as I report the sample size too. Not reporting the sample size along percentages is always problematic. Is that statement correct, or are there additional things to consider? Thank you.

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Donphag
  • 149
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  • 5

This is a very basic, dumb question, but I couldn't find an answer, and on the top of that I'm generally suspicious of common sense/intuition.

I feel like it is "cheating" when saying "80% of people in the sample liked the banana flavor" when there are less than 100 people in the whole sample. But maybe I'm wrong, hence my question. I see at least two problems:

  1. it could be somehow misleading if I omit to mention the sample size

  2. there are percentages impossible to attain, for instance it's impossible to have any percentage between 0 and 10% if there are just 10 people in the sample

Am I overcautious here, and is it actually OK to use percentages like that? Or is it really a problem? Does it have other problems I did not identify?

I'm not sure why the question has been closed (the message at the top says it's not about a question statistics, is it a mistake? Should I post it on the mathematics stackexchange instead, if I understand correctly the help page?). Someone in the answers says it depends on the context, but I don't have a specific example in mind so my question is "it depends on what?". When is it fine to report percentages with a sample size less than 100, and when is it not fine?

TL;DR: If I understand correctly the current answers, it is always fine to report percentages as long as I report the sample size too. Not reporting the sample size along percentages is always problematic. Is that statement correct, or are there additional things to consider? Thank you.

This is a very basic, dumb question, but I couldn't find an answer, and on the top of that I'm generally suspicious of common sense/intuition.

I feel like it is "cheating" when saying "80% of people in the sample liked the banana flavor" when there are less than 100 people in the whole sample. But maybe I'm wrong, hence my question. I see at least two problems:

  1. it could be somehow misleading if I omit to mention the sample size

  2. there are percentages impossible to attain, for instance it's impossible to have any percentage between 0 and 10% if there are just 10 people in the sample

Am I overcautious here, and is it actually OK to use percentages like that? Or is it really a problem? Does it have other problems I did not identify? Thank you.

This is a very basic, dumb question, but I couldn't find an answer, and on the top of that I'm generally suspicious of common sense/intuition.

I feel like it is "cheating" when saying "80% of people in the sample liked the banana flavor" when there are less than 100 people in the whole sample. But maybe I'm wrong, hence my question. I see at least two problems:

  1. it could be somehow misleading if I omit to mention the sample size

  2. there are percentages impossible to attain, for instance it's impossible to have any percentage between 0 and 10% if there are just 10 people in the sample

Am I overcautious here, and is it actually OK to use percentages like that? Or is it really a problem? Does it have other problems I did not identify?

I'm not sure why the question has been closed (the message at the top says it's not about a question statistics, is it a mistake? Should I post it on the mathematics stackexchange instead, if I understand correctly the help page?). Someone in the answers says it depends on the context, but I don't have a specific example in mind so my question is "it depends on what?". When is it fine to report percentages with a sample size less than 100, and when is it not fine?

TL;DR: If I understand correctly the current answers, it is always fine to report percentages as long as I report the sample size too. Not reporting the sample size along percentages is always problematic. Is that statement correct, or are there additional things to consider? Thank you.

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