Question

3. What is the difference between primary and secondary research data? Name two examples of each.

Answer 1

• The difference between primary and second research collection is that primary research data collection involves conducting research oneself, or using the data for the purpose it was intended for. Secondary research data, on the other hand, was collected by a third party or for some other purpose.
• Primary data is a real-time data whereas secondary data is one which relates to the past.
• Primary data is collected for addressing the problem at hand while secondary data is collected for purposes other than the problem at hand.
• Primary data collection sources include surveys, observations, experiments, questionnaire, personal interview, etc. On the contrary, secondary data collection sources are government publications, websites, books, journal articles, internal records etc.
• Primary data collection requires a large amount of resources like time, cost and manpower. Conversely, secondary data is relatively inexpensive and quickly available.
• Primary data is available in the raw form whereas secondary data is the refined form of primary data. It can also be said that secondary data is obtained when statistical methods are applied to the primary data.
• Data collected through primary sources are more reliable and accurate as compared to the secondary sources.