A Brief History Of Sampling Survey

Sample surveys are nowadays widely accepted as a means of providing statistical data on an extensive range of subjects for both research and administrative purposes.Central governments make considerable use of surveys to inform them of the conditions of their populations in terms of employment and unemployment,income and expenditure,housing conditions,education,health and many other subjects.They also conduct surveys of organizations such as manufactures,retail outlets and farms to grasp the condition of economics.Local governments equally make use of surveys for local planning purposes.Market researchers carry out surveys to identify markets for products,to discover how the products are used and how they perform in practice,and to determine consumer reactions.Opinion polls keep track of the popularity of political leaders and their parties and measure public opinion on a variety of topical issues.In view of the current widespread use of surveys,it is somewhat surprising that the sample survey as we know it today has only a short history.It is the1895s when Kiaer put forward "the purpose sampling"was thought the starting time.This history largely confined to the present century,and much of the growth in the use of surveys has occurred since the1930s.During this century considerable advances have been made in all aspects of survey methodology.At the beginning of the century statisticians were debating whether anything less than a complete enumeration of a population would suffice. Since that time sampling has become widely accepted,and an impressive array of sampling methods has been devised to enable efficient and economic samples to be drawn in a variety of practical settings.This paper attempts to review the important contributions of statistician which had a significant impact on its development,and to broaden the idea for its future development. The article first reviews some of the history of the early development of the sample survey,to prepare for the emergence of the sampling survey as a well-defined method. Then it introduces Kiaer’s "representative method", its application of the method and the reaction of statistical community caused by his introduction.Bowley’s random sampling was introduced then. The two methods exist to Neyman’s classic paper published in1934.This article describes his paper and the contribution he made. In the last part, the contribution of Soviet Union and India to the development and its following development in practice was recalled.