More complex sampling strategies (cont.)

Multi-stage sampling

Multi-stage sampling is often used when it is not feasible to take a simple random sample, for example when a population is very geographically dispersed or if there is no sampling frame available and the effort involved in drawing one up would be too great. In these situations it may be preferable to draw a sample in two or more stages. This could be any number of stages, but as the same principles apply we will just consider two-stage samples.

Click on the arrows to move through the stages of conducting a multi-stage sample.