Question

Complete the following observations:

(i) Secondary data is the data ____________.
(ii) Sources of secondary data are ____________.
(iii) Primary data are always collected directly from the individuals ____________.
(iv) Pilot survey is conducted to assess ____________.

Answer 1

i) Secondary data is the data collected by other persons. That is, secondary data is collected by an individual or a group of individuals or any agency in the past for their own purpose but later on used by some other party for some other or same purpose. If the data is collected on a special request then it will be treated as primary data rather than secondary data.

ii) Sources of secondary data are government publications, semi-government publications and private publications. Data collected from such sources are not original as they have not been collected directly by the investigator rather they had been collected by someone else in the past. The secondary sources of data can be in published or unpublished form.

iii) Primary data are always collected directly from the individuals who constitute the universe of study. Primary data means collecting data directly from the actual source of information.


iv) Pilot survey is conducted to assess the quality of questionnaire. Pilot survey are conducted before the final statistical investigation is done. It is a form of pre-testing of the questionnaire on a small sample of the universe that helps in judging the quality of the questionnaire and accordingly, getting to know if any modifications are required in it before the final survey takes place.