Census

Census is a large survey carried out by governments generally to gather information

pertaining to the population. This is a mammoth exercise depending upon the size of
the population and the area of the country as it involves reaching out to each and every
household to ask questions printed on a questionnaire. Carrying out census could be a
very time consuming and expensive affair requiring a high number of personnel. Having
all the information about the total number of people in different age groups, genders,
working in different sectors, their income levels, lifestyles etc provides government with
the ammunition it needs to formulate policies for the uplift of the backward sections of
the society. Census is such a large and time consuming exercise that it cannot be
carried out on a specific requirement and on a short notice. This is the reason why all
necessary questions are included in the questionnaire when this mammoth exercise is
finally carried out in the country.
Survey
In a survey, a sample of the population is selected at random, and data is collected
quickly and in an inexpensive manner. Survey could be as small as among the students
of a school or the employees of a company to as large as cancer patients around the
country. This means that data obtained from a survey could be at a local level, regional
level, or national level depending upon the goal of the survey. Entire population is not
involved in the case of a survey which lowers the accuracy of the results obtained.
However, survey is quick and inexpensive and can be carried out whenever required.
COMPARITIVE STUDY OF CENSES AND SURVEY
Census involves asking questions from the entire population while survey involves
taking out a sample from the population that represent the population best from the
point of view of the goal of the survey.
Survey is quick and gives results quickly too while census is time consuming and
takes a long time to generate results.

 Survey is rather inexpensive, whereas census is a mammoth exercise requiring lots of

money and a high number of personnel.
Census is obviously more accurate than survey where accuracy is somewhat less.
Cluster sampling is a sampling technique used when "natural" but relatively homogeneous
groupings are evident in a statistical population. It is often used in marketing research. In this
technique, the total population is divided into these groups (or clusters) and a simple random
sample of the groups is selected. Then the required information is collected from a simple random
sample of the elements within each selected group. This may be done for every element in these
groups or a subsample of elements may be selected within each of these groups. A common
motivation for cluster sampling is to reduce the total number of interviews and costs given the
desired accuracy. Assuming a fixed sample size, the technique gives more accurate results when
most of the variation in the population is within the groups, not between them.
The population within a cluster should ideally be as heterogeneous as possible, but there should be
homogeneity between cluster means. Each cluster should be a small-scale representation of the
total population. The clusters should be mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive. A random
sampling technique is then used on any relevant clusters to choose which clusters to include in the
study. In single-stage cluster sampling, all the elements from each of the selected clusters are used.
In two-stage cluster sampling, a random sampling technique is applied to the elements from each of
the selected clusters...
The main difference between cluster sampling and stratified sampling is that in cluster sampling the
cluster is treated as the sampling unit so analysis is done on a population of clusters (at least in the
first stage). In stratified sampling, the analysis is done on elements within strata. In stratified
sampling, a random sample is drawn from each of the strata, whereas in cluster sampling only the
selected clusters are studied. The main objective of cluster sampling is to reduce costs by increasing
sampling efficiency. This contrasts with stratified sampling where the main objective is to increase
precision.