Question

Distinguish between secondary and primary data which of these two sets of data is more reliable

Answer 1

Dear student,

Basis	Primary Data	Secondary Data
Originality	Primary data are original in nature as the investigator himself collects data from the origin.	Secondary data are not original as the data has already been collected by someone in the past.
Cost	Primary data are comparatively costlier in terms of money and efforts than secondary data.	Secondary data are collected from the published reports or articles, so these are comparatively less expensive.
Objectives	Primary data are in accordance with the objective of the researcher.	Secondary data being collected by some other people has to be adjusted to suit the objective of the researcher.

Since primary data (like first hand surveys) is the first hand data that is the data originally collected by the investigator, it is more reliable than secondary data (like researching newspaper articles) which is data collected by somebody else originally but modified by the researcher as per the objective.

Regards