MY NOT Data from a survey of 10,413 students and 588 teachers conducted for the Knight Foundation were used to calculate the following estimates: 65% of students and 40% of teachers chose freedom o speech as the most important of the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment. Are the given percentages statistics or population characteristics? Both percentages given are statistics. Both percentages given are population characteristics. "65% of students" is a population characteristic and "40% of teachers" is a statistic. "65% of students" is a statistic and "40% of teachers" is a population characteristic.