Historical Perspectives of Sampling

Despite the current widespread use of surveys, sampling as a formal field of study did not begin until early in the twentieth century. During the first quarter of the twentieth century, considerable advances have been made in all aspects of survey methodology. Initially, statisticians were debating whether anything less than a complete count of a population would suffice, given that this was feasible in principle (O’Muirchaiagh and Wong, 1981). Since that time, support gradually grew for samples selected in a purposive fashion , so as to make them ‘representative ‘ of the populations with regard to certain known variables and attributes . From about 1925 on, theory and practice gradually got momentum in favor of ‘randomization’ as a method for selecting a sample. This development, in run, contributed to the growth of mathematical literature dealing with the properties of various random sampling methods and estimates based on these methods. Uses of random sampling are now widespread and may now be viewed as the efficient, dominant and economic method for estimating the unknown characteristics of a population in a variety of practical setting.


Booth, the pioneer in conducting sample survey, formally inquired into the ‘Labour and Life of People of London (Booth: 1989-1902). This effort gave an impetus to others. At the turn of the century, Booth and Rowntre were conducting large-scale surveys. By the late twenties and early thirties social surveys were being conducted in London and some neighboring cities. Subsequently, surveys began to be used in conjunctions with town planning and various government activities and the techniques were adapted to the needs of market and public opinion research. Now a days, a government organization is wholly dependent on the finding of survey results on such areas as health, social, education, economic and the like others. Social scientist regard social surveys as one of their basic techniques and courses on survey methodology are given in many universities.