First, what are the characteristics of a population for which it would be appropriate to use mean/median/mode? When would the characteristics of a population make them inappropriate to use? Second, using your own experience, what problems have you encountered when you were asked to solve a problem that required gathering and analyzing data? Describe the scenario. What challenges did you face and how did you address the challenges?

A population in which the characteristic of interest is a discrete or continuous quantitative variable with an approximately symmetric and meso-curt distribution is appropriate to use the mean.

A population in which the characteristic of interest is a discrete or continuous quantitative variable with a slightly symmetric distribution or with extreme values is appropriate to use the median.

A population in which the characteristic of interest is a qualitative variable is appropriate to use fashion.

It is not appropriate to use the mean if extreme values are present.

It is not appropriate to use the median if there are several different values with high frequency.

It is not appropriate to wear fashion if the distribution is very skewed asymmetrically.

A frequent problem arises when it is desired to establish the sampling frame, that is, a list of the individuals in the population.

Example: Establish the characteristics of households with children under two years. It was solved by sampling in two phases, identifying in a first phase the sampling frame.