CHAPTER 1  Defining and Collecting Data

Selecting a Stratified Sample

The following example illustrates how to select a stratified sample.
Example  A company wants to select a sample of 32 full-time workers from a population of
800 full-time employees in order to estimate expenditures from a company-sponsored dental
plan. Of the full-time employees, 25% are managers and 75% are nonmanagerial workers. How
do you select the stratified sample in order for the sample to represent the correct percentage of
managers and nonmanagerial workers?
Solution  If you assume an 80% response rate, you need to send 40 surveys to get the nec-
essary 32 responses. The frame consists of a listing of the names and e-mail addresses of all
N = 800 full-time employees included in the company personnel files. Because 25% of the
full-time employees are managers, you first separate the frame into two strata: a subpopulation
listing of all 200 managerial-level personnel and a separate subpopulation listing of all 600
full-time nonmanagerial workers. Because the first stratum consists of a listing of 200 manag-
ers, you assign three-digit code numbers from 001 to 200. Because the second stratum contains
a listing of 600 nonmanagerial workers, you assign three-digit code numbers from 001 to 600.
To collect a stratified sample proportional to the sizes of the strata, you select 25% of the
overall sample from the first stratum and 75% of the overall sample from the second stratum.
You take two separate simple random samples, each of which is based on a distinct random
starting point from a table of random numbers (Table E.1). In the first sample, you select 10
managers from the listing of 200 in the first stratum, and in the second sample, you select 30
nonmanagerial workers from the listing of 600 in the second stratum. You then combine the
results to reflect the composition of the entire company.

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