The Sample

15.

THE SAMPLE.

The planning of the sample presented some difficulty, since it seemed that the nature of the problem imposed the need for safeguard against certain possible biasing factors.

1. Opinion in large towns might not be representative in such a question.
2. It was thought that heavy bombing might seriously have affected habits.

Because of these changes it was thought necessary to limit the number of large towns subjected to bombing in which interviewing took place. The number of interviews made were as follows:

Reception Areas 305		Bombed Areas 435		Others 728
Aylesbury	79	London	150	Slough	86	Bromsgrove	37
Sevenoaks	58	Bristol	90	Maidstone	59	Kidderminster	47
Bath	56	Coventry	95	Kettering	59	Stoke-on-Trent	70
Salisbury	60	Glasgow	100	Dorchester	55	Burnley	120
Blackpool	52			Wrexham	40	a Peebles	40
				Leeds	115

Rural Calls were distributed all over the country, outside the following towns:

Slough	20	Bristol	15	Total 245 calls, or 16.6% of the sample.
Aylesbury	20	Wrexham	10
Maidstone	14	Bromsgove	4
Sevenoaks	11	Kidderminster	11
Kettering	19	Coventry	15
Salisbury	15	Stoke-on-Trent	10
Dorchester	10	Burnley	30
Bath	16	Leeds	25

Social Groups.

	A	B	C	D	Total
Calls	119	247	616	486	1468
Proportions	8.1%	16.8%	42%	33.1%	100%

These proportions were maintained in reception, bombed and other areas with a tendency for the A and B groups to be slightly more emphasised in reception areas.

Regional Dispersion.

Regionally the calls were dispersed as follows:-

London, S.E. and Home Countries	432
South-West and South	261
Scotland	140
North England and Midlands	635

Age Composition.

Age was not secured for 279 housewives in the sample. It is believed however that these calls were not biassed towards any age group. The age composition of the remainder was as follows:-

Under 20	0.6%
20-29	29.7%
30-39	43.0%
40-50	26.7%

No housewives over 50 were interviewed.