Systematic Sampling Process Steps
The following steps are taken to get a systematic sample:
Step 1: Make an ordered list of your entire population.
Step 2: Determine your interval size, k, by dividing the number of objects in the entire
population by the number of objects you would like in your sample, n.
Step 3: Starting with a random object in the list that falls within the first n objects, take
every k object until you have n objects.
For instance, consider our earlier example where we have 2,500 workers in our
population, and we want to take a sample of 25 workers. To take a systematic sample,
we would make an ordered list of all 2,500 workers. Next, we would determine our
interval size by dividing our entire population (2,500) by the number of workers in our
sample (25) to get 2,500/25 = 100. This is our interval size. Lastly, starting at a random
worker in the first 25 workers, we would take every 100th worker from the list until we
had 25 workers.
Applying Systematic Sampling
Say you want to create a systematic random sample of 1,000 people from a
population of 10,000. Using a list of the total population, number each person
from 1 to 10,000. Then, randomly choose a number, like 4, as the number to start
with. This means that the person numbered "4" would be your first selection, and
then every tenth person from then on would be included in your sample. Your
sample, then, would be composed of persons numbered 14, 24, 34, 44, 54, and so
on down the line until you reach the person numbered 9,994.
Systematic sampling is a statistical methodinvolving the selection of elements from an
ordered sampling frame. The most common form of systematic sampling is
an equiprobability method. In this approach, progression through the list is treated
circularly, with a return to the top once the end of the list is passed. The sampling starts
by selecting an element from the list at random and then every kth element in the frame
is selected, where k, the sampling interval (sometimes known as the skip): this is
calculated as:[1]
where n is the sample size, and N is the population size.
Using this procedure each element in the population has a known and equal probability
of selection. This makes systematic sampling functionally similar to simple random
sampling (SRS). However it is not the same as SRS because not every possible sample
of a certain size has an equal chance of being chosen (e.g. samples with at least two
elements adjacent to each other will never be chosen by systematic sampling). It is
however, much more efficient (if variance within systematic sample is more than
variance of population).[citation needed]
Systematic sampling is to be applied only if the given population is logically
homogeneous, because systematic sample units are uniformly distributed over the
population. The researcher must ensure that the chosen sampling interval does not hide
a pattern. Any pattern would threaten randomness.
Example: Suppose a supermarket wants to study buying habits of their customers, then
using systematic sampling they can choose every 10th or 15th customer entering the
supermarket and conduct the study on this sample.
This is random sampling with a system. From the sampling frame, a starting point is
chosen at random, and choices thereafter are at regular intervals. For example,
suppose you want to sample 8 houses from a street of 120 houses. 120/8=15, so every
15th house is chosen after a random starting point between 1 and 15. If the random
starting point is 11, then the houses selected are 11, 26, 41, 56, 71, 86, 101, and 116.
As an aside, if every 15th house was a "corner house" then this corner pattern could
destroy the randomness of the sample.
If, as more frequently, the population is not evenly divisible (suppose you want to
sample 8 houses out of 125, where 125/8=15.625), should you take every 15th house or
every 16th house? If you take every 16th house, 8*16=128, so there is a risk that the
last house chosen does not exist. On the other hand, if you take every 15th house,
8*15=120, so the last five houses will never be selected. The random starting point
should instead be selected as a non integer between 0 and 15.625 (inclusive on one
endpoint only) to ensure that every house has equal chance of being selected; the
interval should now be non integral (15.625); and each non integer selected should be
rounded up to the next integer. If the random starting point is 3.6, then the houses
selected are 4, 20, 35, 50, 66, 82, 98, and 113, where there are 3 cyclic intervals of 15
and 4 intervals of 16.
To illustrate the danger of systematic skip concealing a pattern, suppose we were to
sample a planned neighborhood where each street has ten houses on each block. This
places houses No. 1, 10, 11, 20, 21, 30... on block corners; corner blocks may be less
valuable, since more of their area is taken up by street front etc. that is unavailable for
building purposes. If we then sample every 10th household, our sample will either be
made up only of corner houses (if we start at 1 or 10) or have no corner houses (any
other start); either way, it will not be representative.
Systematic sampling may also be used with non-equal selection probabilities. In this
case, rather than simply counting through elements of the population and selecting
every kth unit, we allocate each element a space along a number line according to its
selection probability. We then generate a random start from a uniform distribution
between 0 and 1, and move along the number line in steps of 1.
Example: We have a population of 5 units (A to E). We want to give unit A a 20%
probability of selection, unit B a 40% probability, and so on up to unit E (100%).
Assuming we maintain alphabetical order, we allocate each unit to the following interval:
A: 0 to 0.2
B: 0.2 to 0.6 (= 0.2 + 0.4)
C: 0.6 to 1.2 (= 0.6 + 0.6)
D: 1.2 to 2.0 (= 1.2 + 0.8)
E: 2.0 to 3.0 (= 2.0 + 1.0)
If our random start was 0.156, we would first select the unit whose interval contains this
number (i.e. A). Next, we would select the interval containing 1.156 (element C), then
2.156 (element E). If instead our random start was 0.350, we would select from points
0.350 (B), 1.350 (D), and 2.350 (E).
