# What is the difference between population and sampling frame?

I'm working on work for my Statistics course, and I am confused on what the difference between population and sampling frame is.

A simplified view may be as follows:

Suppose the objective of the survey is to estimate the per household income of $abc$ national in a city. Then the all the households of $abc$ nationals is the the target population. It is the collection of items from which a sample has to be taken.

A sampling frame is a list of the items of the population from which a sample is to be obtained. Suppose a household list of the city is available. This list of households become the sampling frame.

This list may contain households of other nationals. These households are not eligible items for being members of the population. They need to removed before a sample is made.

The sampling frame may not contain all the households of the $abc$ nationals. In that case, some eligible items of the population are left out from sampling.

When contacted, some households may refuse to provide information.

The remaining households in the sampling frame become the actual sampled population.

I an ideal situation, the population and the sampling frame are same.

• What do you mean by "abc national" and "abc nationals"? Do you mean nationality? If so, I would suggest phrasing it as "Suppose the objective of the survey is to estimate the per household income of a particular nationality, such as the citizens of Turkey." – David J. Dec 9 '19 at 4:20

population is the all people or objects to which you wishes to generalize the findings of your study, for instance if your study is about pregnant teenagers , all of the pregnant tens are your target population. Sample frame is a subset of the population and the people or object that you have access to them. For instance, the number of observations that you had about pregnant teens.