What is the term for the entire set of items from which a sample is drawn in a market?

The term for the entire set of items from which a sample is drawn in a market is called Population. In market research, a population refers to the entire group of individuals or items that share one or more characteristics that a researcher is interested in studying. For example, if a company wants to understand the purchasing habits of young adults, the population would include all young adults within the defined demographic that the company is studying.

Understanding the concept of population is crucial because it defines the scope of the research and informs how representative the sample will be. A representative sample helps in making valid generalizations and predictions about the behaviors and characteristics of the wider population based on the analyzed data. This is fundamentally different from a sample, which is a smaller subset selected from the population for analysis. The other terms listed, such as survey and demographic, refer to specific aspects of market research but do not describe the entire set of items or individuals from which data is gathered.