What makes an effective sample survey? Sample Surveys What makes an effective sample survey?

Features of an effective Sample Survey “A good sample is a miniature version of the population – just like it, only smaller.” Fink 1995. Sampling is necessary when the entire “population” you are interested is too big to survey “population” could mean Clydebank, Scotland, Ethnic groups, crime victims etc etc Generalisations are made about the “population” so sample needs to ‘reflect’ that population

Features of an effective Sample Survey For the general population as a whole, the sample should reflect main characteristics of the census The sample method may vary depending on your “population” – e.g. prisoners: questionnaire; young people: internet survey etc

When making up sample, need to consider…. size of sample compared with ‘population age group gender type of housing occupation social class household income highest educational qualification obtained time and place that survey is carried out.

Examples Cluster sampling Systematic sampling Stratified sampling