Sample surveys: collecting population data

• In a sample survey only part of the population is covered in the survey.
• A survey is an exercise designed to obtain information from the people being surveyed for example
• Surveys can be made on:
• consumer rends
• fertility trends etc
• A survey obtains data from a subset of the population
• This data is then used to estimate attributes for the entire population
• Sampling surveys are cheaper and can be reasonably accurate when it comes to estimating population attributes.
• A sampling error can also be calculated and used in establishing the accuracy of the data.
• Sampling surveys are susceptible to sampling bias
• Errors made during sampling are only magnified when the results are applied to the whole population
• It can be difficult to make sure that the sample is representative

NB Inter-census surveys are carried out between two census in Zimbabwe to assess population trends.

This also often done in other countries.

To access more topics go to the Geography Notes page.