Sampling

Question ?
▪ Who appears to constitute the population of
interest?
▪ Which type of sampling procedure best
describes that used by the Researcher?
▪ What are the limitations of this sampling
method, and in what specific ways could the
sampling method have affected the findings?
▪ Why is it so important to get the size of a
sample as close as possible to what is
"correct"?
 Key Terms in Sampling
▪ Population
▪ Target population
▪ Sample
▪ Sampling Frame
▪ Sampling
▪ Statistics
▪ Parameter
▪ Sampling error
▪ Generalizability
▪ Biased sample
▪ Sample Design
 Population
▪ In statistics, a population is the entire group of individuals,
objects, or events that a study is interested in.
▪ A population is a complete set of persons or objects that
possess some common characteristics that is of interest to
the researcher.
▪ It's also known as the target population or research
population.
▪ The population is defined by the research objectives and
the attributes being investigated.
▪ It refers to the entire group of individuals or objects to
which researchers are interested in generalizing the
conclusions
▪ Example –
▪ JNU Ph.D. students Research Methodology Understanding
▪ Hospital patients
 Target Population
▪ Target Population represents specific subgroup within the
population that a researcher is interested in researching and
analysing.
▪ Students at a particular University -JNU
▪ Of a particular programme- Economics, Sociology, History
▪ Patient of disease- TB, Diabetes, Heart
▪ Employees of a particular sector –Formal and Informal Sector
▪ The target population consists of people or things that meet
the designated set of criteria of interest to the researcher.
▪ The group of individuals or items the researcher want to
apply their study results generally is know as the target
population.
▪ Target population depends on Research Objectives
 Sample
▪ A sample is a subset of the population.
▪ The concept of sample arises from the inability of
the researchers to test all the individuals in a
given population.
▪ The sample must be representative of the
population from which it was drawn and it must
have good size to undergo statistical analysis.
 Sampling frame
▪ A sampling frame is a list, database, or a source of
information that contains all the elements or members of the
target population from which a sample can be drawn.
▪ It serves as the actual source from which you select your
sample.
▪ Ideally, the sampling frame should include every member of
the target population, ensuring that each individual has a
chance of being selected in the sample.
▪ It is a list of all those within a population who can be
sampled, and may include individuals, households or
institutions.
1. Customer Satisfaction Survey
▪ Scenario: A company wants to assess customer
satisfaction for its new product.
▪ Target Population: All customers who purchased
the new product in the last three months.
▪ Sampling Frame: The company's sales database
listing all customers who made a purchase in the
last three months, including their contact details.
▪ Explanation: The sales database serves as the
sampling frame, as it contains the relevant subset
of the customer base that the company wants to
survey.
2.Academic Research on Student Behavior
▪ Scenario: A university researcher wants to study
the online learning behavior of students.
▪ Target Population: All undergraduate students
enrolled in the university.
▪ Sampling Frame: The university's student
registration records, which include all currently
enrolled undergraduate students.
▪ Explanation: The student registration records
provide a comprehensive list of all potential
participants, ensuring that the sample can be
drawn from all undergraduate students.
3.Health Study on Elderly Population
▪ Scenario: A health department wants to study
the prevalence of hypertension among elderly
residents in a city.
▪ Target Population: All residents aged 60 and
above in the city.
▪ Sampling Frame: The city’s healthcare
database or voter registration list that includes
information on residents' ages.
▪ Explanation: The healthcare database or voter
registration list acts as the sampling frame,
allowing the researchers to identify and sample
individuals who are 60 years and older.
4.A health study on diabetes prevalence
among adults in a city
▪ Population: All adults in the city.
▪ Target Population: Adults aged 40-60 in
the city.
▪ Sample: 500 adults aged 40-60 selected
from the target population.
▪ Sampling Frame: Voter registration lists or
healthcare records.
• Sampling frame vs. population
▪ The sampling frame is a list of all people or units from the population that
the sample is selected from. In contrast, the population is the whole
group or collection of humans, objects, or events that are being observed.
Sampling frame vs. target population
The sampling frame, a portion of the target population, is a reference for
researchers as they decide on and choose the proper sample. It describes
the list of people, homes, and other things that researchers have access to
or can utilize to select a sample from. The group of individuals or items the
researchers want to apply their study results generally is known as the
target population
 Sampling
• Sampling is simply the process of learning
about the population on the basis of sample
drawn from it ( population). Therefore, in
sampling , only part of the population is
studied and the conclusions are drawn on
that basis for the entire population or
universe .
▪ Sampling unit - the unit of selection in the
sampling process
▪ Study unit (study subjects)- the unit on
which information is collected or on which
observations are made. E.g. Familiar examples
are families, towns, litters, branches of a
company, individual subjects or schools.
Target Population:
The population to be studied/ to which the investigator
wants to generalize his results
Sampling Unit:
smallest unit from which sample can be selected
Sampling frame
List of all the sampling units from which sample is drawn
Sample size
The number of units in a sample is called the
sample size.
Sample Design
A set of rules or procedures that specify how a
sample is to be selected. This can either be
probability or non-probability
 What is sampling ?

• Sampling is simply the process of learning about

the population on the basis of sample drawn
from it ( population). Therefore, in sampling ,
only part of the population is studied and the
conclusions are drawn on that basis for the
entire population or universe .
• A sample is some part of a larger body
specially selected to represent the whole
 Why Sampling ?
▪ Less time consuming than a census
▪ Less cost than a census
▪ More detailed information
▪ Less problem and more practical to
conduct than a census of the targeted
population.
 The Sampling Process
Plan procedure for
selecting sampling units

Determine if a probability
3 or non-probability sampling Determine sample size 5
method will be chosen

2 Select a Select actual sampling units 6

Sampling Frame

Define the Target

1 Conduct fieldwork 7
population
 Types of Sampling
Mainly sampling is divided into two types

Probability Nonprobability
sampling sampling
 Sampling Design
Probability Nonprobability
▪ Simple random ▪ Convenience
sampling sampling
▪ Systematic random ▪ Judgment sampling
sampling ▪ Quota sampling
▪ Stratified random ▪ Snowball sampling
sampling
▪ Cluster sampling
▪ Multistage
Sampling
 Probability Sampling
Probability sampling is that sampling in which every items
in the universe/population has known chance, of being
chosen for the sample . It implies the selection of sample
items is independent of person making the study . more to
say, the sample is selected on the basis of chance . There
is no bias

Non-Probability Sampling
Non- probability sampling methods are those
which do not provide every items in the
universe/population with a know chance of being
included in the sample
 SIMPLE RANDOM SAMPLING
• Applicable when population is small, homogeneous &
readily available
• All subsets of the frame are given an equal probability.
Each element of the frame thus has an equal probability
of selection.
• It provides for greatest number of possible samples.
This is done by assigning a number to each unit in the
sampling frame.
Therefore,
➢ Samples are selected on the basis of chance
➢ Personal bias of the investigators does not influence the
sample selection
• A table of random number or lottery system is used to
determine which units are to be selected. 27
 Lottery method
Under this method,
▪ all items of the universe are numbered or
named on separate slips of paper of
identical size and shape.
▪ These slips are then folded and mixed up in
a container.
▪ A blindfold selection is then made of the
number of slips required to constitute the
desired sample size.
▪ The selection items thus depends entirely
on chance.
 Random number tables
▪ Random number tables consist of a randomly generated
series of digits (0-9).
▪ To make them easy to read there is typically a space
between every 4th digit and between every 10th row.
▪ When reading from random number tables you can begin
anywhere (choose a number at random) but having once
started you should continue to read across the line or down
a column and NOT jump about.
Here is an extract from a table of random sampling
numbers:
• 3680 2231 8846 5418 0498 5245
7071 2597
• If we were doing market research and wanted to sample two houses
from a street containing houses numbered 1 to 48 we would read off
the digits in pairs
36 80 22 31 88 46 54 18 04 98 52 45 70 71 25
97
and take the first two pairs that were less than 48, which gives house
numbers 36 and 22.

• If we wanted to sample two houses from a much longer road with 140
houses in it we would need to read the digits off in groups of three:
368 022 318 846 541 804 985 245 707 1 25 97
and the numbers underlined would be the ones to visit: 22 and 125
 Systematic Random Sampling
Procedure:

▪ Number units in population from 1 to N.

▪ Decide on the n that you want or need.
▪ K=N/n where k the Interval size,
N=Universe size , n=sample size
▪ Randomly select a number from 1 to k.
▪ Take every kth unit.
 Systematic Random Sampling
This method is used when we 1 26 51 76
have complete list of N = 100 2 27 52 77
3 28 53 78
population under study . This 4 29 54 79
list may be prepared in 5 30 55 80
alphabetical, geographical, Want n = 20 6 31 56 81
7 32 57 82
numerical or some other 8 33 58 83
order. The first items is 9 34 59 84
selected at random and K=N/n = 5 10 35 60 85
11 36 61 86
thereafter at regular intervals. 12 37 62 87
13 38 63 88
14 39 64 89
Select a random number from 1-5: chose 4 15 40 65 90
16 41 66 91
17 42 67 92
18 43 68 93
19 44 69 94
20 45 70 95
Start with #4 and take every 5th unit 21 46 71 96
22 47 72 97
23 48 73 98
24 49 74 99
25 50 75 100
 Stratified Sampling
▪ Stratified sampling techniques are generally
used when the population is heterogeneous.
▪ In stratified sampling, the population is
divided into groups called strata.
▪ A sample is then drawn from within these
strata
 How to form Strata ?
▪ Subsets of the listing units in the population
▪ Set of strata must be mutually exclusive and collectively
exhaustive
▪ Strata are often based on Variables like
– Income
– Education
– Designation
– age
– sex
– Caste
– Religion
 Sample size within strata
How many sample should be taken from
each stratum?
❖ Proportional
❖ Disproportional allocation

In proportional allocation , the number of items drawn

from each strata is proportional to the size of the strata.
 Cluster (Area) Random Sampling

Procedure:
• Divide population into clusters.
• Randomly sample clusters.
• Measure all units within sampled
clusters.
 Cluster (Area) Random Sampling

• Advantages: Administratively useful,

especially when you have a wide
geographic area to cover.

• Examples: Randomly sample from city

blocks and measure all homes in selected
blocks.
 Difference between stratified and cluster
sampling
In stratified sampling, the strata are constructed
such that they are
▪ within homogeneous and
▪ Among heterogeneous
In cluster sampling, the clusters are constructed
such that they are
• Within heterogeneous and
• Among homogeneous
• All strata are represented in the sample; but
only a subset of clusters are in the sample
 MULTI-STAGE SAMPLING

▪ The procedure of first selecting large sized units

and then choosing a specified number of sub-
units from the selected large units is known as
sub-sampling.
▪ The large units are called ‘first stage units’ and
the sub-units the ‘second stage units’.
▪ The procedure can be easily generalised to
three stage or multistage samples.
 Convenience Sampling
▪ Sometimes known as grab or opportunity
sampling or accidental or haphazard
sampling.
▪ Selection of whichever individuals are
easiest to reach.
▪ It is done at the “convenience” of the
researcher.
▪ Researcher tend to make the selection at familiar locations and
to choose respondents who are like themselves.
– Error occurs 1) in the form of members of the population who
are infrequent or nonusers of that location and 2) who are not
typical in the population
Purposive/Judgmental Sampling
▪ Judgment samples: samples that require a
judgment or an “educated guess” on the part
of the interviewer as to who should represent
the population.
Also, “judges” (informed individuals) may be
asked to suggest who should be in the
sample.
– Subjectivity enters in here, and certain members
of the population will have a smaller or no chance
of selection compared to others
 QUOTA SAMPLING
▪ The population is first segmented into mutually exclusive sub-
groups, just as in stratified sampling.

▪ Then judgment used to select subjects or units from each

segment based on a specified proportion.

▪ For example, an interviewer may be told to sample 200

females and 300 males between the age of 45 and 60.
▪ It is this second step which makes the technique one of non-
probability sampling.
▪ In quota sampling the selection of the sample is non-random.
▪ For example interviewers might be tempted to interview those
who look most helpful. The problem is that these samples
may be biased because not everyone gets a chance of
selection. This random element is its greatest weakness and
quota versus probability has been a matter of controversy for
many years
42
 Snowball Sampling

▪ Used in studies involving respondents who are

rare to find.
▪ To start with, the researcher compiles a short
list of sample units from various sources.
▪ Each of these respondents are contacted to
provide names of other probable respondents.
Potential Sources of Error in Research Design
 What size sample do I need?”

▪ The size of the universe/population

▪ The resources available
▪ The degree of accuracy desired
▪ Homogeneity or Heterogeneity of the universe
▪ Nature of study
▪ Nature of respondents
▪ Type of analysis to be employed
▪ The level of precision needed
▪ Sampling technique used
 Calculating Sample Size.

There are different procedures that could be used for

calculating sample size:
▪ Use of formulae
▪ Ready made table
▪ Computer software
Sample size determination in quantitative study

Several criteria will need to be specified

to determine the appropriate sample
size:
–Level of precision/ Sampling Error,
–Level of confidence or risk,
– Degree of Variability
 Level of precision
▪ Sample size is to be determined according to some
pre assigned “degree of precision”
▪ The ‘degree of precision’ is the margin of permissible
error between the estimated value and the population
value.
▪ In other words, it is the measure of how close an
estimate is to the actual characteristic in the
population.
▪ The Level of Precision-sometimes called sampling
error/ ‘confidence interval’
▪ The difference between the sample statistic and the
related population parameter is called the sampling
error
▪ Range in which the true value of the population is
estimated to be.
– This range is often expressed in percentage points
(e.g., ±5 percent).
– If the sampling error or margin of error is ±5%, and
70% unit in the sample attribute some criteria, then
it can be concluded that 65% to 75% of units in the
population have attributed that criteria
▪ High level of precision requires larger sample sizes
and higher cost to achieve those samples.
 The Confidence Level / Risk Level
▪ How confident do you want to be that the actual mean falls
within your confidence interval?
▪ The most common confidence intervals are 90% confident,
95% confident, and 99% confident
▪ E.g. a 95% confidence level is selected, 95 out of 100
samples will have the true population value within the
range of precision
 Degree of Variability
– refers to the distribution of attributes in the population.
– The more heterogeneous a population, the larger the
sample size required to obtain a given level of precision.
– The less variable (more homogeneous) a population, the
smaller the sample size.
– You should note that a 50/50 split on a specific attribute or
response indicates maximum variability in the population,
whereas a 90/10 split means that 90 per cent of the
population share an attribute, so the sample is less variable.
– If you don’t know what level of variability to expect, then
assume that it is 50 per cent ( .5)
– This may mean that you use a larger sample size than was
really needed, but that is better than using a sample size
that is too small, and then having no confidence in the
results.
 Cochran’s formula for calculating sample size when the
population is infinite:
Cochran (1977) developed a formula to calculate a representative sample for
proportions as

Where n0 is the sample size,

▪ Z2 is the abscissa of the normal curve that cuts off an area α at the
tails; (1 – α) equals the desired confidence level, e.g., 95%);
▪ e is the desired level of precision/Margin of error
▪ p is the estimated proportion of an attribute that is present in the
population ( degree of Variability), and q is 1-p.
 Note:

▪ p=proportion in the target population estimated to have a

particular characteristics. If there is no reasonable estimate,
use 50%(i.e 0.5)
▪ q=1-p(proportion in the target population not having the
particular characteristics)
▪ Z= The value for Z is found in statistical tables which contain
the area under the normal curve. e.g. Z = 1.96 for 95 % level
of confidence

▪ e= degree of accuracy required, usually set at 0.05 level(

occasionally at 2.0)
 Example
Suppose we want to calculate a sample size of a large population whose
degree of variability is not known. Assuming the maximum variability, which
is equal to 50% ( p =0.5) and taking 95% confidence level with ±5%
precision, the calculation for required sample size will be as follows--

Sample size is

p = 0.5 and hence q =1-0.5 = 0.5; e = 0.05; z =1.96

( 1st equation)
 Cochran’s formula for calculating sample size when the
population is finite

▪ Cochran pointed out that if the population is finite, then the

sample size can be reduced slightly.
▪ This is due to the fact that a very large population provides
proportionally more information than that of a smaller
population.
▪ He proposed a correction formula to calculate the final sample
size in this case which is given below

▪ Here, I is the sample size derived from equation (1) and N is

the population size
▪ Now, suppose we want to calculate the sample size for the
population of our study where, population size is N =13191.
▪ According to the formula (1), the sample size will be 666 at 99% confidence level
with margin of error equal to (0.05).
▪ If is negligible then is a satisfactory approximation to the sample size.

▪ But in this case, the sample size (666) exceeds 5% of the population size
(13191).
▪ So, we need to use the correction formula to calculate the final sample size
▪ Here, N = 13191, 0 n = 666 ( using formua 1)

• But, if the sample size is calculated at 95% confidence level with margin of
error equal to (0.05), the sample size become 384 which does not need
correction formula. So, in this case the representative sample size for our
study is 384
Yamane’s formula for calculating sample size
▪ Yamane suggested another simplified formula for
calculation of sample size from a population which is
an alternative to Cochran’s formula
▪ According to him, for a 95% confidence level and p =
0.5 , size of the sample should be

where, N is the population size and e is the level of

precision .
▪ Let this formula be used for our population, in
which N =13191 with ±5% precision.
▪ Assuming 95% confidence level and p =0.5,
we get the sample size as
Sample sizes calculated by Yamane’s formula
Sample sizes calculated by Cochran’s formula
 Note
▪ The sample size formulas provide the
number of responses that need to be
obtained. Many researchers commonly add
10 % to the sample size to compensate for
persons that the researcher is unable to
contact.
▪ The sample size also is often increased by
30 % to compensate for non-response ( e.g
self administered questionnaires).
 Use Of Readymade Table For Sample Size
Calculation

How large a sample of patients should be followed up if

an investigator wishes to estimate the incidence rate of a
disease to within 10% of it’s true value with 95%
confidence?
The table show that for e=0.10 & confidence level of
95%, a sample size of 385 would be needed.
This table can be used to calculate the sample size
making the desired changes in the relative precision &
confidence level .e.g if the level of confidence is reduce
to 90%, then the sample size would be 271.
Such table that give ready made sample sizes are
available for different designs & situation
33
 USE OF COMPUTER SOFTWARE FOR SAMPLE SIZE
CALCULATION & POWER ANALYSIS

The following software can be used for calculating

sample size & power;
❖ Epi-info
❖ nQuerry
❖ Power & precision
❖ Sample
❖ STATA
❖ SPSS
Questions/Clarification