Question

What does it mean for a survey to method to be precise

Answer 1

Precision of a survey method relates the variation in the values of any obtained parameter of a population through any specific sampling method.In simpler words, if you take a survey method and apply it repeatedly again and again to a population, the variation between each sample is referred to as precision of the method. So if 10 samples from same population produce less variation, then the survey method is more precise. It is necessary to use same sampling procedures using the same sampling frame and sample size to being able to compare these sample.

Precision is different from accuracy because accuracy is a measure of the difference between the survey estimate and the true value of a population parameter. While precision is comparison between multiple survey estimates. Precision is usually measured using sample variance, standard error, relative standard error, the confidence interval, and difference between estimated percentiles like interquartile range for a population parameter.