Practical Methods for Design and Analysis of Complex Surveys (Statistics in Practice Series)

Statistics in Practice, A new series of practical books outlining the use of statistical techniques in a wide range of application areas:

• Human and Biological Sciences
• Earth and Environmental Sciences
• Industry, Commerce and Finance

Covering both survey sampling and survey analysis, the authors aim to provide the reader with a unified coverage of the practical tools of basic and more advanced survey sampling and estimation. Contents include:

• Sampling design.
• The design effect statistic.
• Use of auxiliary information.
• Methods for handling missing data.
• Variance and covariance estimation.
• Design-based analysis of frequency tables.
• Multivariate methods for complex surveys.

Fully worked examples and case studies taken from official statistics and real surveys on health and social sciences are used to illustrate the various methods. Additional case studies are presented covering a range of topics such as business surveys, socio-economic surveys and educational surveys. Selected commercially available software packages for complex surveys are discussed with demonstrations using data from the case studies. Intended primarily for those involved in the planning, implementation or analysis of descriptive or analytical surveys and opinion polls, the book will also be of interest to researchers and students in many disciplines. In addition, the book is well suited for use on courses in survey sampling.

Provides readers with practical, up-to-date tools for basic and more advanced sampling and estimation, demonstrating the benefits of using available auxiliary information for efficient sampling and estimation. Describes approximative techniques for variance and covariance estimation as well as analysis methods for frequency tables and multivariate techniques usable in complex surveys. Each method is illustrated with numerical examples and case studies from actual surveys.