WHICH TO USE IN A SURVEY - POPULATION OR SAMPLE?
Many factors must be considered when developing a survey. In most situations the best statistics come from using the whole population. But for various reasons this is not always practical. The type of information obtained will be affected by the type of survey conducted and data collected. Some of these are listed below.
Time - It takes time to run a survey, surveying an entire population can be very long.
Expense - Conducting a survey for an entire population can be expensive for large populations.
Accuracy - The larger the sample the more likely it will display the characteristics of the population.
Information - A large sample can be further broken down to smaller subgroups for detailed analysis.
Confidentiality - When personal information is collected in the ABS surveys must be large enough so that no individual can be identified.
Print Page
Print All