what is standard error se 
standard error se is a statistic that reveals how accurately sample data represents the whole population it measures the accuracy with which a sample distribution represents a population by using standard deviation in statistics a sample mean deviates from the actual mean of a population this deviation is the standard error of the mean the standard error is considered part of inferential statistics or the conclusions drawn from the study it is inversely proportional to the sample size the larger the sample size the smaller the standard error because the statistic will approach the actual value investopedia joules garciaunderstanding standard errorthe term standard error or se for short is used to refer to the standard deviation of various sample statistics such as the mean or median 