Point estimate
A point estimate is a single value computed from sample data as the best guess of an unknown population parameter, such as the sample mean estimating the population mean. It contains no built-in measure of its own uncertainty.
See it move
Average spend per customer, calculated from a sample, comes out at €47 — a single point estimate with no built-in sense of how close it is to the true population value. Pairing it with an interval, €47 ± €3, adds that missing context about precision. A good point estimator, such as the sample mean, is unbiased and efficient, but it is never a substitute for an interval.
Check yourself
An e-commerce firm surveys 300 randomly selected customers and finds that 96 made a repeat purchase within 30 days of their first order. A data analyst reports 32% as the estimate of the firm's overall repeat-purchase rate. How is this 32% best classified?