Practical Tools for Designing and Weighting Survey Samples

The goal of this book is to put an array of tools at the fingertips of students, practitioners, and researchers by explaining approaches long used by survey statisticians, illustrating how existing software can be used to solve survey problems, and developing some specialized software where needed. This volume serves at least three audiences: (1) students of applied sampling techniques; 2) practicing survey statisticians applying concepts learned in theoretical or applied sampling courses; and (3) social scientists and other survey practitioners who design, select, and weight survey samples. The text thoroughly covers fundamental aspects of survey sampling, such as sample size calculation (with examples for both single- and multi-stage sample design) and weight computation, accompanied by software examples to facilitate implementation. Features include step-by-step instructions for calculating survey weights, extensive real-world examples and applications, and representative