The two forms of standard deviation are relevant to two different types of variability. One is the variability of values within a set of numbers and one is an estimate of the variability of a population from which a sample of numbers has been drawn.

The population standard deviation is relevant where the numbers that you have in hand are the entire population, and the sample standard deviation is relevant where the numbers are a sample of a much larger population.

For any given set of numbers the sample standard deviation is larger than the population standard deviation because there is extra uncertainty involved: the uncertainty that results from sampling. See this for a bit more information: Intuitive explanation for dividing by when calculating standard deviation?

For an example, the population standard deviation of 1,2,3,4,5 is about 1.41 and the sample standard deviation is about 1.58.

Answer from Michael Lew on Stack Exchange
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Laerd Statistics
statistics.laerd.com › statistical-guides › measures-of-spread-standard-deviation.php
Standard Deviation | How and when to use the Sample and Population Standard Deviation - A measure of spread | Laerd Statistics
However, in statistics, we are ... deviation is no exception to this. Therefore, if all you have is a sample, but you wish to make a statement about the population standard deviation from which the sample is drawn, you need to use the sample standard deviatio...
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The two forms of standard deviation are relevant to two different types of variability. One is the variability of values within a set of numbers and one is an estimate of the variability of a population from which a sample of numbers has been drawn.

The population standard deviation is relevant where the numbers that you have in hand are the entire population, and the sample standard deviation is relevant where the numbers are a sample of a much larger population.

For any given set of numbers the sample standard deviation is larger than the population standard deviation because there is extra uncertainty involved: the uncertainty that results from sampling. See this for a bit more information: Intuitive explanation for dividing by when calculating standard deviation?

For an example, the population standard deviation of 1,2,3,4,5 is about 1.41 and the sample standard deviation is about 1.58.

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My question is similar pnd1987's question. I wish to use a standard deviation in order to appraise the repeatability of a measurement. Suppose I'm measuring one stable thing over and over. A perfect measuring instrument (with a perfect operator) would give the same number over and over. Instead there is variation, and let's assume there's a normal distribution about the mean.

We'd like to appraise the measurement repeatability by the SD of that normal distribution. But we take just N measurements at a time, and hope the SD of those N can estimate the SD of the normal distribution. As N increases, sampleSD and populationSD both converge to the distribution's SD, but for small N, like 5, we get only weak estimates of the distribution's SD. PopulationSD gives an obviously worse estimate than sampleSD, because when N=1 populationSD gives the ridiculous value 0, while sampleSD is correctly indeterminate. However, sampleSD does not correctly estimate the disribution's SD. That is, if we measure N times and take the sampleSD, then measure another N times and take the sampleSD, over and over, and average all the sampleSDs, that average does not converge to the distribution's SD. For N=5, it converges to around 0.94× the distribution SD. (There must be a little theorem here.) SampleSD doesn't quite do what it is said to do.

If the measurement variation is normally distributed, then it would be very nice to know the distribution's SD. For example, we can then determine how many measurements to take in order tolerate the variation. Averages of N measurements are also normally distributed, but with a standard deviation 1/sqrt(N) times the original distribution's.

Note added: the theorem is not so little -- Cochran's Theorem

The two forms of standard deviation are relevant to two different types of variability. One is the variability of values within a set of numbers and one is an estimate of the variability of a population from which a sample of numbers has been drawn.

The population standard deviation is relevant where the numbers that you have in hand are the entire population, and the sample standard deviation is relevant where the numbers are a sample of a much larger population.

For any given set of numbers the sample standard deviation is larger than the population standard deviation because there is extra uncertainty involved: the uncertainty that results from sampling. See this for a bit more information: Intuitive explanation for dividing by when calculating standard deviation?

For an example, the population standard deviation of 1,2,3,4,5 is about 1.41 and the sample standard deviation is about 1.58.

Answer from Michael Lew on Stack Exchange
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Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Standard_deviation
Standard deviation - Wikipedia
2 days ago - As sample size increases, the amount of bias decreases. We obtain more information and the difference between ... For unbiased estimation of standard deviation, there is no formula that works across all distributions, unlike for mean and variance. Instead, s is used as a basis, and is scaled by a correction factor to produce an unbiased estimate.
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ScienceDirect
sciencedirect.com › topics › mathematics › sample-standard-deviation
Sample Standard Deviation - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics
If you have a sample of data selected at random from a larger population, then the sample standard deviation is appropriate. If, on the other hand, you have an entire population, then the population standard deviation should be used. The sample standard deviation is slightly larger in order ...
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Calculator.net
calculator.net › home › math › standard deviation calculator
Standard Deviation Calculator
The population standard deviation, the standard definition of σ, is used when an entire population can be measured, and is the square root of the variance of a given data set. In cases where every member of a population can be sampled, the following equation can be used to find the standard deviation of the entire population:
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DataCamp
datacamp.com › tutorial › sample-standard-deviation
Sample Standard Deviation: The Key Ideas | DataCamp
September 26, 2024 - The sample standard deviation is ... divided by the sample size minus one. We use the sample standard deviation when we want to know how much the data points in a sample differ from the sample mean....
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ThoughtCo
thoughtco.com › population-vs-sample-standard-deviations-3126372
Differences Between Population and Sample Standard Deviations
May 11, 2025 - The final step, in either of the two cases that we are considering, is to take the square root of the quotient from the previous step. The larger the value of n is, the closer the population and sample standard deviations will be.
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Cuemath
cuemath.com › sample-standard-deviation-formula
What Is Sample Standard Deviation Formula? Examples
Before learning the sample standard deviation formula, let us see when do we use it. In a practical situation, when the population size N is large it becomes difficult to obtain value xi for every observation in the population and hence it becomes difficult to calculate the standard deviation ...
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Statology
statology.org › home › population vs. sample standard deviation: when to use each
Population vs. Sample Standard Deviation: When to Use Each
August 23, 2021 - Answer: He should use the population standard deviation because he is only interested in the height of students in this one particular class. ... Suppose a biologist wants to summarize the mean and standard deviation of the weight of a particular species of turtles. She decides to go out and collect a simple random sample of 20 turtles from the population.
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ScienceDirect
sciencedirect.com › topics › mathematics › population-standard-deviation
Population Standard Deviation - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics
If you have a sample of data selected at random from a larger population, then the sample standard deviation is appropriate. If, on the other hand, you have an entire population, then the population standard deviation should be used. The sample standard deviation is slightly larger in order ...
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Codidact
math.codidact.com › posts › 289643
What is the formula for sample standard deviation of a small sample size? - Mathematics
I had no doubts whatsoever that I must multiply standard deviation by the Student's $t$ coefficient for a small sample size. And I have been doing it all the time. I used it in a draft for an article. When I was checking the draft, I decided to check this formula.
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Outlier
articles.outlier.org › sample-standard-deviation-definition
Sample Standard Deviation: What is It & How to Calculate It | Outlier
January 1, 2022 - Sometimes statisticians have data for an entire population. Most of the time, however, they have to work with samples. When you are dealing with population data and want to calculate a standard deviation, use the population standard deviation formula given above.
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CalculatorSoup
calculatorsoup.com › calculators › statistics › standard-deviation-calculator.php
Standard Deviation Calculator
When working with data from a complete ... the size of the data set, n. When working with a sample, divide by the size of the data set minus 1, n - 1. ... Take the square root of the population variance to get the standard deviation....
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Math.net
math.net › home › probability and statistics › descriptive statistics › sample standard deviation
Sample standard deviation
Sampling is often used in statistical experiments because in many cases, it may not be practical or even possible to collect data for an entire population. For example, it may not be practical to collect weight data for all the students attending a large university. However, data can be collected from a sample of the students and statistical measures (including standard deviation) can be used to make inferences about the rest of the population based on the sample.
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There are, in fact, two different formulas for standard deviation here: The population standard deviation $\sigma$ and the sample standard deviation $s$.

If $x_1, x_2, \ldots, x_N$ denote all $N$ values from a population, then the (population) standard deviation is $$\sigma = \sqrt{\frac{1}{N} \sum_{i=1}^N (x_i - \mu)^2},$$ where $\mu$ is the mean of the population.

If $x_1, x_2, \ldots, x_N$ denote $N$ values from a sample, however, then the (sample) standard deviation is $$s = \sqrt{\frac{1}{N-1} \sum_{i=1}^N (x_i - \bar{x})^2},$$ where $\bar{x}$ is the mean of the sample.

The reason for the change in formula with the sample is this: When you're calculating $s$ you are normally using $s^2$ (the sample variance) to estimate $\sigma^2$ (the population variance). The problem, though, is that if you don't know $\sigma$ you generally don't know the population mean $\mu$, either, and so you have to use $\bar{x}$ in the place in the formula where you normally would use $\mu$. Doing so introduces a slight bias into the calculation: Since $\bar{x}$ is calculated from the sample, the values of $x_i$ are on average closer to $\bar{x}$ than they would be to $\mu$, and so the sum of squares $\sum_{i=1}^N (x_i - \bar{x})^2$ turns out to be smaller on average than $\sum_{i=1}^N (x_i - \mu)^2$. It just so happens that that bias can be corrected by dividing by $N-1$ instead of $N$. (Proving this is a standard exercise in an advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate course in statistical theory.) The technical term here is that $s^2$ (because of the division by $N-1$) is an unbiased estimator of $\sigma^2$.

Another way to think about it is that with a sample you have $N$ independent pieces of information. However, since $\bar{x}$ is the average of those $N$ pieces, if you know $x_1 - \bar{x}, x_2 - \bar{x}, \ldots, x_{N-1} - \bar{x}$, you can figure out what $x_N - \bar{x}$ is. So when you're squaring and adding up the residuals $x_i - \bar{x}$, there are really only $N-1$ independent pieces of information there. So in that sense perhaps dividing by $N-1$ rather than $N$ makes sense. The technical term here is that there are $N-1$ degrees of freedom in the residuals $x_i - \bar{x}$.

For more information, see Wikipedia's article on the sample standard deviation.

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Statistics LibreTexts
stats.libretexts.org › bookshelves › introductory statistics › introductory statistics (shafer and zhang) › 6: sampling distributions
6.1: The Mean and Standard Deviation of the Sample Mean - Statistics LibreTexts
March 27, 2023 - The random variable \(\bar{X}\) has a mean, denoted \(μ_{\bar{X}}\), and a standard deviation, denoted \(σ_{\bar{X}}\). Here is an example with such a small population and small sample size that we can actually write down every single sample. A rowing team consists of four rowers who weigh \(152\), \(156\), \(160\), and \(164\) pounds. Find all possible random samples with replacement of size two and compute the sample mean for each one. Use them to find the probability distribution, the mean, and the standard deviation of the sample mean \(\bar{X}\).
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JMP
jmp.com › en › statistics-knowledge-portal › measures-of-central-tendency-and-variability › standard-deviation
Standard Deviation | Introduction to Statistics
The sample standard deviation measures the spread of the data in your sample. This is an estimate of the population standard deviation. The standard deviation is the square root of the variance.
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/learnmath › should i use the population or sample standard deviation
r/learnmath on Reddit: Should I use the population or sample standard deviation
November 29, 2022 -

So I have 12 samples that I've tested for their thermal conductivity for a chemistry lab and want to compute their standard deviation. I've read online about the difference between population vs sample SD and it seems you only use population SD when you've tested the entire population, not just a portion of it. I'm not sure what it means by population though. Would my 12 samples count as the entire population?