Census vs convenience sampling

[Lisa D]

Hi, All:

I am a little confused about the difference between census and convenience sampling. Supposedly, I will conduct a survey involving all grade 3 student in one school (total is about 120). If I send out the online survey to All the students, does it make it a census?

If, say, only 20% of student responded. Basically, that means, 20% of students volunteer to participate. Should they be counted as convenience sampling?

I would appreciate it if anyone can clarify this for me.

Thank you in advance.

Lisa

[Stephen Gorard]

This would be an attempted census. Not a very good one as 80% of cases are missing in your example.

 

But why does it matter? It makes no difference to the analysis.

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