stratified sample

a SAMPLE which is selected by first stratifying the parent population. The procedure involves dividing the population into strata relevant to the study to be undertaken, e.g. for a study of voting intention, social class and age may be relevant; for a study of attitudes to the benefit system, income level and employment status would be relevant. When the strata have been identified RANDOM SAMPLES are taken from each. As long as these samples are of sizes proportionate to the size of each stratum within the parent population (proportionate stratification), this method allows improved precision, particularly if a sample is being taken from a relatively large population, since it introduces some controlled restrictions on selection. However, disproportionate stratification may be used if a stratum is too small to yield a sufficiently large sample for analysis if the criterion for selection used in other strata is adopted.

Collins Dictionary of Sociology, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2000

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References in periodicals archive

Question 1: Is there a difference in school-wide student pass rates on English/Language Arts (ELA) assessments between an experimental group of elementary, middle, and secondary RAMP-designated schools (2007-2009) and a stratified sample of control schools at one particular point in time (2009)?

Comprehensive school counseling programs and student achievement outcomes: a comparative analysis of ramp versus non-ramp schools

If the variance of the observed characteristic within each stratum is smaller than that for the entire population, as is usually true, the reliability of the sample for a given size will be better or the efficiency for a given degree of reliability will be greater because we used a stratified sample. Thus, we find stratification useful in handling heterogeneous populations.

Charter 5 Sampling and sampling distributions

For the above production process a QC practitioner can take either a random or stratified sample to investigate if the process is in control.

Stratified production process: sensitivity of detecting a single stratum shift

Although there was no statistically significant difference in the indicators of fertility between linked and unlinked cases, the differential in linkage rates was considerably more pronounced in its biasing effect than the modest departures of the 1910 stratified sample from the national public use sample of that year.

'The number and quality of children': education and marital fertility in early-twentieth century Iowa

An independent research firm will select a stratified sample of senior credit, finance and sales/marketing professionals to participate in the focus groups.

The future of credit is almost here

The stratified sample includes 270 children which is not a small sample considering the resource and time expended on individually administered devices specially with very young children.

Adaptation of Columbia Mental Maturity Scale in Pakistan

The information about daily newspapers is derived from a changed model adopted by the Newspaper Association of America that uses a stratified sample of U.S.

Newsprint news

Although it is hard to draw population conclusions from a stratified sample of this type, two impressions struck me.

Bridges to Retirement: Older Workers in a Changing Labor Market

The purpose of this study was to determine if there were significant similarities or differences in problem-solving orientations and decision-making styles among a stratified sample of rehabilitation practitioners.

Problem-solving orientations and decision-making styles among rehabilitation professionals

We should mark the lack of any pretense to either a random or a stratified sample. Users who might wish to perform their own statistical analyses will have to create their own sample from this data.

Dictionary of business biography: a biographical dictionary of business leaders active in Britain in the period 1860-1980. Volume 1: A-C