Question

How can you tell the difference between a Cluster sample versus a stratified sample?

Answer 1

Solution :

Stratified sample : A sample that is divided into a categories called strata. These strata describe the sample population in more details. For example a restaurant owner wants to survey his customers. Most of them are local around 80% and others 20% are visitors. If he randomly sampled the population. He would not learn about the visitors. So chooses the strata of locals vs visitors. Then he can customize his population to sample. Say 60% locals and 40% visitors. Now he can learn about both strata by deliberating overstating the visitors in his survey.

Cluster sampling : A type of stratified sample that groups the population into convenient clusters. For example a researcher wants to survey the academic performance of Georgia. He divides GA into clusters like cities. Atlanta, Augusta, Macon. From there he randomly samples the school within the cluster to complete his survey.

In stratified sampling technique, the sample is created out of the random selection of elements from all the strata while in the clusters sampling all the units of the randomly selected clusters form a sample.

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