Small Large

Reasons of Sampling
Time: as it is difficult to contact each and every individual of the whole population
Cost: The cost or expenses of studying all the items (objects or individual) in a
population may be prohibitive
Physically Impossible: Some population is infinite, so it will be physically
impossible to check all items in the population, such as populations of fish,
birds, snakes, mosquitoes. Similarly, it is difficult to study the populations that
are constantly moving, being born, or dying
Destructive nature of some studies:when a doctor wants to do a blood test,
he only needs to take a sample because if he drains all blood out of the patient,
the patient will definitely die.
Accuracy and sampling - A sample may be more accurate than the total study
population. A badly identified population can provide less reliable information
than a carefully obtained sample.
A population is divided into homogenous, called strata and
a sample is selected from each stratum.
• Goal: To guarantee that all groups in the population are
adequately represented.

• Within stratum - uniformity (homogenous), Between strata

– differences (heterogeneous).

• Can be stratified by any variable that is available e.g.

Gender (Male & Female), Education Level (Undergraduate,
Graduate & Postgraduate) etc.
 Cluster sampling

Cluster sampling is an example of 'two-stage sampling' .

 First stage a sample of areas is chosen;
 Second stage a sample of respondents within those areas is selected.
 Population divided into clusters of homogeneous units, usually based on
geographical area.
 Sampling units are groups rather than individuals.
 A sample of such clusters is then selected.
 All units from the selected clusters are studied.
 The population is divided into subgroups (clusters) like families. A simple
random sample is taken of the subgroups and then all members of the
cluster selected are surveyed
Merits of Cluster sampling
Cluster sampling offers the following advantages:
1.Since listing and travel expenses are among the lowest of
any feasible approach, cluster sampling is usually the most
affordable form of sampling
2.Cluster Sample permits each accumulation of large samples.
The loss of precision per individual case is more than
compensated for by the possibility of studying larger samples
for the same cost. The higher sample size will lead to a
reasonably high level of precision.
3. Cluster sampling procedure enables to obtain information
from one or more areas.
Demerits of cluster sampling
The following are the disadvantages of Cluster sampling:
1.In a cluster sample, each cluster may be composed of units that is like one
another. This may produce large sampling error and reduce the
representativeness of the sample.
2.In Cluster sampling, when unequal size of some of the subsets is selected,
an element of sample bias will arise.
3.This type of sampling may not be possible to apply its findings to another
area.
4.Sometimes, adequate number of cases from the stand point of increasing
the precision of sample is not selected, an overlapping effect may take place