Residual estimate of Gaussian noise variance (${\hat{\sigma }}^2=\mathrm{RSS}/(n-p)$)

For a correctly specified full-rank fixed-design Gaussian linear regression with $p<n$, dividing the residual sum of squares by the residual degrees of freedom $n-p$ gives an unbiased estimator of the noise variance. The projection removes the whole deterministic mean, so the numerator's expectation is $(n-p){\sigma }^2$. A misspecified subset model need not have this property.

In a full-rank normal linear model with $n$ observations and $p$ mean coefficients, the residual standard error estimates the common error standard deviation. Its square is the unbiased estimator $\mathrm{RSS}/(n-p)$; the square root itself is not generally unbiased. It measures unexplained response variation, whereas a regression coefficient's standard error measures uncertainty in that coefficient.