Sampling Theory

Introduction
 All items in any field of Enquiry constitutes Universe or
population.
 A complete enumeration of all items in the ‘population’
is known as a census inquiry.
 If the universe(population) is large and observations are
more census is Impractical.
 When field studies are undertaken in practical life,
considerations of time and cost almost invariably lead
to a selection of respondents i.e., selection of only a few
items.
 The respondents selected should be as representative of
the total population as possible in order to produce a
miniature cross-section.
 The selected respondents constitute what is
technically called a ‘sample’ and the selection process
is called ‘sampling technique
 The survey so conducted is known as ‘sample survey’.
 Algebraically, let the population size be N and if a part
of size n (which is < N) of this population is selected
according to some rule for studying some
characteristic of the population.
 The group consisting of these n units is known as
‘sample’.
 Researcher must prepare a sample design for his
study i.e., he must plan how a sample should be
selected and of what size such a sample would be.
Steps in Sample Design
Type of universe
Sampling unit
Source list
Size of sample
Parameters of interest
Budgetary constraint
Sampling procedure
CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD SAMPLE DESIGN
Sample design must result in a truly
representative sample.
 Sample design must be such which results in
a small sampling error.
Sample design must be viable in the context
of funds available for the research study.
Sample design must be such so that
systematic bias can be controlled in a better
way.
 Sample should be such that the results of the
sample study can be applied, in general, for
the universe with a reasonable level of
confidence.
DIFFERENT TYPES OF SAMPLE DESIGNS
Let us consider Mysore city council wants to
know the responses of the people regarding
the withdrawal of subsidy of LPG
The council decides to send questionnaire to
each Individual in Mysore and 5% response
rate is expected,
Non-Probability Samples
Convenience
Sample selected simply for ease

Example – Mysore city Council go to KR Circle and

hand questionnaires to everyone they encounter
until they have 1000 complete.

Quick and cheap

Non-Probability Samples
Example 2:Want to know views on bringing Metro to Mysore.
Go to Railway St at 6:30 PM on Friday afternoon and ask 1000
people for their views
Go to suburban Bus stand at 6:30 on Friday afternoon and ask
1000 people for their views

Bias is a major problem – sample unlikely to be

representative
Non-Probability Samples
Quota Sampling
Subjective choice of sample based on
what researcher thinks is representative.
Example – Mysore council sends 3
researchers knocking on doors in
Nanjangud, Mysore city, Hunsur until they
have responses
Age broken
Men down
Women as:
10 to 20 120 100
20 to 30 100 100
30 to 40 55 50
40 to 50 70 65
50 to 60 80 90
60+ 60 110
Quota Sampling
Quicker and cheaper than probability
sampling
Large non response
Still may not be representative
What do base your quota on – age, gender,
ethnicity, education, tenure, religion?
Probability Sampling
Example – 1000 households randomly selected
across Mysuru
More expensive and slower
Non response a problem – but resources can be
targeted and extent of non response bias can be
estimated.
Enables precision of final statistics to be
assessed.
Sample selection method is objective, specified
and replicable.
Sampling Frames
List of all units/people that could be included in
sample
Sample is only as good as the sampling frame
o Eligible units/people not on frame cannot be
selected – leads to coverage error
o Units/people on frame more than once changes
probability of being selected
o Ineligible units/people on frame can lead to
final sample being smaller than intended.
Sampling Frames
Frames can be created:
From pre-existing lists (UK postcode address
file)
Geographically with multi-stages
Through time
Simple random sampling
Sampling method completely random based on
random numbers.
Is easy to understand, can be expensive
Example – every household in Mysuru assigned a
number. 1000 random numbers chosen between
1 and 204,683. These numbers identify which
households are in sample.
Tables of random numbers
www.random.org
Excel function ‘=rand()’
Systematic Sampling
Uses a ‘random’ start on the sampling frame and
then selects every i’th unit/person.
Easy to understand, quick and easy to implement.

Can lead to some stratification depending on how

the list is ordered.
Can be expensive
Need to be careful on how list is ordered to avoid
bias.
Systematic Sampling
Sampling Frame Example
1 16 31 46
2 17 32 47 Total units on sampling frame =
3
4
18
19
33
34
48
49
60
5 20 35 50
6 21 36 51
7 22 37 52 Want sample of 10
8 23 38 53
9 24 39 54
10 25 40 55
11 26 41 56
Interval size is 60/10 = 6
12 27 42 57
13 28 43 58
14 29 44 59 Select random start between 1
15 30 45 60
and 6

Select every sixth unit

Stratified Sampling
Units/people are aggregated into subgroups
called strata. A certain number of units are
sampled from each stratum.
United Kingdom
(60m)

England (51m)Northern Ireland Scotland (5m) Wales (3m)

(2m)

Guards against unusual samples

Stratification information has to be available
Stratified Sampling
Proportionate Stratification
Chance of inclusion in sample is same for
all units/people regardless of strata

Population Sample Size Sampling Fraction

United Kingdom 61 000 000 6 100 0.01%
England 51 000 000 5 100 0.01%
Northern Ireland 2 000 000 200 0.01%
Scotland 5 000 000 500 0.01%
Wales 3 000 000 300 0.01%
Stratified Sampling
Disproportionate Stratification
Chance of a unit/person being included in the
sample depends on the strata they are in.
Often used to target small sub groups to help
analysis
Population Sample Size Sampling Fraction
United Kingdom 61 000 000 6 100 0.01%
England 51 000 000 3 100 0.01%
Northern Ireland 2 000 000 1 000 0.05%
Scotland 5 000 000 1 000 0.02%
Wales 3 000 000 1 000 0.03%
Cluster Sampling
What if there are a small number of units
across a large area?
Divide population into clusters along
geographic boundaries (e.g. wards)
Randomly sample clusters
Measure all units within selected clusters
Reduces costs for face to face interviews
But bias can be a problem if what you
want to measure depends of geographic
location.
Cluster Sampling
Example – Select 100 random postcodes
within Edinburgh and interview all
households within the 100 postcodes
Reduces costs for face to face interviews
But bias can be a problem if what you
want to measure depends of geographic
location.
Multistage Sampling
Larger units are randomly selected
Smaller units within the larger unit are then
randomly selected
Examples – Mysuru council randomly selects
40 Areas and then selects 10 households
within each Area
Multistage Sampling
Can be useful when no sampling frame is
available
Reduces costs for face to face interviews
Similar bias problems to clustering