[An old post which I am reposting here.]

As a technical note, a 95% confidence interval does not mean that there is a 95% probability that the interval contains the true mean. The interval computed from a given sample either contains the true mean or it does not. Instead, the level of confidence is associated with the method of calculating the interval. The confidence coefficient is simply the proportion of samples of a given size that may be expected to contain the true mean. That is, for a 95% confidence interval, if many samples are collected and the confidence interval computed, in the long run about 95% of these intervals would contain the true mean.

From the Engineering Statistics Handbook [National Institute of Standards and Technology, Information and Technology Laboratory]