Sample Design

A sample design is the framework, or road map, that serves as the basis for the selection of a survey sample and affects many other important aspects of a survey as well. In a broad context, survey researchers are interested in obtaining some type of information through a survey for some population, or universe, of interest. One must define a sampling frame that represents the population of interest, from which a sample is to be drawn. The sampling frame may be identical to the population, or it may be only part of it and is therefore subject to some undercoverage, or it may have an indirect relationship to the population (e. g. the population is preschool children and the frame is a listing of preschools). ...