What term refers to the characteristics of a population, such as age and gender?

The correct term that refers to the characteristics of a population, such as age and gender, is demographics. Demographics encompass specific statistical data related to the population, highlighting various attributes that can be crucial for businesses and researchers to understand market segments and consumer behavior. By analyzing demographics, companies can tailor their products and marketing strategies to better meet the needs and preferences of different groups within the population.

In contrast, ethics pertains to moral principles guiding behavior and decision-making, while statistics is the branch of mathematics dealing with data collection, analysis, interpretation, and presentation. Collective data generally refers to a compilation of information aggregated from different sources and does not specifically focus on the population characteristics like demographics do.