Elementary Statistics (1+1)

2.1.6 Advantages of secondary data

Secondary data offers the following advantages:

(1) It is highly convenient to use information which someone else has compiled. There is no need for printing data collection forms, hiring enumerators, editing and tabulating the results, etc. Researchers alone or with some clerical assistance may obtain information from published records compiled by somebody else.

(2) If secondary data are available they are much quicker to obtain than primary data.

(3) Secondary data may be available on some subjects where it would be impossible to collect primary data. For example, census data cannot be collected by an individual or research organization, but can only be obtained from Government publications.