quota sample

Meanings

1. 1nouncountable

   A group of people chosen for a survey so that its proportions match those of a larger population.

   Grammar: Countable: you can say 'a quota sample' or 'quota samples'.

   Patterns

   • a quota sample of something
   • select/use a quota sample

   The researchers used a quota sample of 500 adults, with 60% women and 40% men.

   A quota sample can be quicker and cheaper than a random sample, but it may not represent the whole population perfectly.

2. 2noununcountable

   The method of choosing people for a survey in this way.

   Grammar: Uncountable when referring to the method itself: 'Quota sample is often used in market research.'

   Patterns

   • use quota sample
   • by quota sample

   The study was criticized for using quota sample rather than probability sampling.

   Quota sample is common in opinion polls because it is fast.

Word forms

Common combinations

quota sample survey

They conducted a quota sample survey of 1,000 voters.

quota sampling

Quota sampling is often used when a full random sample is too expensive.

representative quota sample

The poll aimed for a representative quota sample of the city's population.

Synonyms and how they differ

stratified sample

A stratified sample divides the population into groups and then samples randomly within each group; a quota sample fills set numbers without random selection.

purposive sample

A purposive sample is chosen based on the researcher's judgment, not fixed proportions, so it is less structured than a quota sample.

Opposites

Word family

quota noun

A fixed share or number that must be met.

sampling noun

The process of selecting a group to study.

Commonly confused: quota sample or quota sampling?

Practice

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