A History of the Ministry of Information, 1939-46
Appendix
Sample
A. Main Sample
The survey was based on interviews with a representative sample of the civilian adult population of Great Britain from the age of 18 and upward. Quotas were set according to the distribution of the population in the different Ministry of Food regions, and within these regions the sample was stratified by occupation and by sex. 2,000 interviews were set and 2,007 were in fact completed. The following tables show that the resulting sample is satisfactory.
Comparison of Marital Status among the whole population of Great Britain and the sample
| Marital Status |
Population
% |
Sample
% |
| Married | 71 | 70 |
| Single | 18 | 18 |
| Widowed and Divorced | 11 | 12 |
The population percentages are based on material collected in random samples of the civilian population. It will be seen that the sample percentages agree very closely with those actually in existence. A useful check on the general representativeness of the sample is thereby provided since marital status proportions were not set.
Comparison of Age and Sex distributions among the whole population of great Britain and the sample
| Age | Male | Female | ||
|
Population
% |
Sample
% |
Population
% |
Sample
% |
|
| 18 - 24 | 8 | 6 | 13 | 10 |
| 25 - 34 | 21 | 20 | 19 | 21 |
| 35 - 44 | 23 | 25 | 20 | 25 |
| 45 - 54 | 19 | 24 | 18 | 20 |
| 55 - 64 | 15 | 11 | 15 | 14 |
| 65 and over | 14 | 14 | 15 | 10 |
The population percentages are based on the Registrar General’s figures for 30th June, 1946. In general the sample material shows good agreement. It should be noted however the sample slightly over represents the proportions of women in the 35-44 age group and under represents the number of women in the over 65 age group.
Comparison of Sex determination among the whole population of Great Britain and the sample
| Sex |
Population
% |
Sample
% |
| Male | 44 | 41 |
| Female | 56 | 59 |
Again the population percentages are based on the Registrar General’s figures for 30 th June, 1946. The sample data, however, does not check perfectly because the sex quotas were set on earlier information. The percentage of men had meanwhile risen owing to demobilisation from the forces.
B. Special Holiday Sample
In the absence of any statistics it was decided to obtain the two special supplementary samples of 200 holiday makers and 200 landladies in the following way. The 400 interviews were carried out in 20 representative holiday resorts scattered around the coasts of Great Britain. The resorts were: Dunbar, Scarborough, Filey, Lowestoft, Southend, Margate, Bexhill, Brighton, Selsey, Bournemouth, Weymouth, Torquay, Looe, Ilfracombe, Weston Super-Mare, Aberystwyth, Llandudno, Morecambe, Blackpool, and Dunoon. Ten landladies and ten holiday makers were interviewed in each resort. Half the landladies and ten holiday makers who were interviewed lived on or near the front and half away from the sea. Holiday makers were selected at random for interview on the beach, promenade or in public places.
It was hoped that this method would provide representative samples of these two groups of people. An analysis by sex, age and economic group of the two samples is given below:-