Give an example of how you would create a sample from the population of the United States using cluster sampling and stratified sampling. Then, compare and contrast these two methods.

Answer:

With cluster sampling, counties are the groups: randomly pick several across the United States, then survey people who live in those chosen counties. With stratified sampling, first sort the population into age groups, then randomly choose people from each group based on that group’s share of the whole population. Both approaches group people before sampling. Cluster sampling takes people from just a few groups, but stratified sampling draws people from all of them.