Step 1: The key feature being tested is the level at which data are analysed in an ecological study design.
Step 2: Unlike studies that examine individual patients, ecological studies compare aggregate measures across whole populations or communities, correlating group-level exposure with group-level disease rates.
Step 3: Because the figures come from grouped or routinely published statistics, the investigator works with population averages rather than person-level information.
Step 4: Therefore the unit of study is the population, not the individual patient or case.
\[\boxed{\text{Population}}\]