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In a research paper, I want to use population size (count) as an adjective for population. Here the population size is 60, i.e. there were 60 individuals in the statistical population. Is it OK to say

In a 60-people population...

Or should it be reworded as:

In a 60-individual population...

?
I am not sure if either of the above sentences are correct, but I tried to follow the grammatical convention used, for example, in a 100-dollar note, a one-step program, a two hundred-page book, a ten-minute workout,etc.
Which style should I use to make a modifier that, when brought before "population", says that the population consists of 60 people.

Edit
Some context for further clarification:

Sadeghian et al (2009) examined the relationship between organizational self-esteem, organizational feedback, and personality types in a 60-[people/person/individual?] population from among education employees of Jarghooyeh Sofla (a county in Isfahan).

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    60-person sample, group or population would sound natural to me.
    – DrMoishe Pippik
    Commented Mar 16, 2015 at 17:49
  • @brian-hitchcock what is wrong with "comprised of"?
    – Mehdi Haghgoo
    Commented Mar 18, 2015 at 16:22
  • 1
    It's an auto-antonym, and therefore inherently ambiguous. If you mean composed of, say composed of. If you mean includes, say includes.
    – Brian Hitchcock
    Commented Mar 20, 2015 at 8:17

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Sadeghian et al (2009) examined the relationship between organizational self-esteem, organizational feedback, and personality types in a 60-[people/person/individual?] population from among education employees of Jarghooyeh Sofla.

Normally I would say "a population of 60 people", but given the length of this sentence I think it may be better to use "60 person population".

I believe the hyphen may be omitted because there is no ambiguity in the given context that 60 and person belong together and are modifying population.

I would think about using sample instead of population. The way I read it, a 60 person sample was taken from the population of education employees in Jarghooyeh Sofla. I am not a statistician though, so if population means something specific in statistics, it may not be a good substitution.

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  • +1 for recommending sample. It's much more appropriate in this situation.
    – Catija
    Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 0:09
  • Whether there is ambiguity or not, the hyphen is required to marry the double-worded adjective.
    – randomhead
    Commented Dec 6, 2021 at 4:07

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