Stratified Sampling

Barry

What is stratified sampling in audit

Baz

peugeot

Stratified sampling is a technique where the auditor will split the components of a "population" into stratas and then use those stratas as a basis for the sample. The best way is to look at an example:

A company employs 130 people on the payroll of which 50 are full time males, 20 part time males, 20 full time females and 40 part time females.

The auditor will then work out the percentage which makes up each 'strata', so:

Full-time males % (50/130x100) = 38%
Part-time males % (20/130 x 100) = 15%
Full-time females % (20/130 x 100) = 15%
Part-time females % (40/130 x 100) = 32%

So if the auditor's sample size is 30, then out of this 30 38% should be full time males, 15% part time males and so on.

That is stratified sampling.

Kind regards
steve