Yesterday marked the first day of the 54th session of the United Nations Statistical Commission. Chief statisticians from countries worldwide are gathering to advance better data for better lives. Since 1984, The DHS Program has helped over 90 countries conduct more than 400 surveys that provide nationally representative demographic, health, gender and nutrition data that […]
If you’ve watched this video on The DHS Program sampling procedures, you’re aware that calculating a sample size is based on many considerations. Samplers must balance data quality concerns, capacity of the implementing agency, and precision required with available funding and time for the survey. Getting the sample size right is important because “if you […]
The DHS Program recently published a Methodological Report providing a framework for estimating “level-weights” in DHS surveys – weights that correspond to each stage of sampling. These weights are required for multilevel modeling. While the audience for the framework itself is academic researchers, the challenge of protecting respondent confidentiality while supporting data analysis is of […]
In some developing countries, the knowledge and methods for complex survey sampling can be capacity gaps in national statistical offices. In many cases, survey samples are prepared by statisticians who have limited academic and field experience in sampling. For this reason, The DHS Program has developed a Regional Sampling Workshop to provide a two-week face-to-face […]
At long last, The DHS Program has released two videos which demonstrate how to weight DHS data, concluding the Sampling and Weighting video series. The first video in the series, Introduction to DHS Sampling Procedures, as well as the second video, Introduction of Principles of DHS Sampling Weights, explained the basic concepts of sampling and weighting […]
In my travels as a DHS sampling statistician, I have met countless people who want to hear about the sampling techniques and procedures we use in DHS surveys. Recognizing this fact, we are working to incorporate more sampling-related capacity strengthening activities at The DHS Program. The feedback we get after these activities has only encouraged […]