Census

If we have a population which we want to study, we can either take a small sample of the population (see sampling strategies, or we can take a census of the population.

Census

A census is a survey of an entire population. Every member of the population is included in the census.

Advantages of a census

• A census gives us a complete picture of the population. We can be sure that our results are accurate and representative of the population as a whole.
• It allows us to study anything we want to about the population
• It’s much more accurate than a sample, because we are not relying on a small group of people to represent the population.
• Nobody is left out - results aren’t biased.

Disadvantages of a census

• A census can be very expensive and time-consuming to conduct, especially if the population is large.
• It can be difficult to get everyone in the population to participate in the census, which can lead to incomplete or inaccurate data.
• It can be difficult to anaslyse and interpret the results (takes a long time to process the statistics).

When to use a census

It’s only really a good idea to use a census when either:

• The population is small enough that a census isn’t too hard or expensive to do.
• We need to know everything about the population, and we can’t afford to miss any information (e.g. a census of all the people in a country, to find out how many people there are, and what their ages are).