Tolerance Interval - Relation To Other Intervals

Relation To Other Intervals

The tolerance interval is less widely known than the confidence interval and prediction interval, a situation some educators have lamented, as it can lead to misuse of the other intervals where a tolerance interval is more appropriate.

The tolerance interval differs from a confidence interval in that the confidence interval bounds a single-valued population parameter (the mean or the variance, for example) with some confidence, while the tolerance interval bounds the range of data values that includes a specific proportion of the population. Whereas a confidence interval's size is entirely due to sampling error, and will approach a zero-width interval at the true population parameter as sample size increases, a tolerance interval's size is due partly to sampling error and partly to actual variance in the population, and will approach the population's probability interval as sample size increases.

The tolerance interval is related to a prediction interval in that both put bounds on variation in future samples. The prediction interval only bounds a single future sample, however, whereas a tolerance interval bounds the entire population (equivalently, an arbitrary sequence of future samples). In other words, a prediction interval covers a specified proportion of a population on average, whereas a tolerance interval covers it with a certain confidence level, making the tolerance interval more appropriate if a single interval is intended to bound multiple future samples.

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