Monday, June 25, 2007

relations

I read somewhere today that according to a survey over 25% of the world's population have had only one partner in their life; I wouldn't have guessed such a high number ...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't have guessed such a low number ...

Anonymous said...

I don’t know about this survey!!! It sounds kind of fishy to me. It’s really hard to conduct a survey within the world population. Also, how they control its accuracy.

dokhtare aftab said...

actually this is not an uncommon practice. i don't know your background so i'll just try to give you an idea of how they do it. they start with estimates of the population for each region. they pick a large enough group from each region (with defined parameters) so that it is a good representation of the population and survey it. then the results are combined and after a little (well for the world a lot!) of processing they come up with a number they recommend as the worldwide average. you can always calculate a variance tied to your survey method and the size of the sample you took. depending on the depth of the survey there is a maximum set to the variance; so it can be done!

Anonymous said...

I agree with you completely. Once I had to do a small survey for a school project. I know it’s not an easy thing to do and I’m sure it can be done. I wrote that comment because I didn’t know all the details about the survey you mentioned.

There are a lot of parameters to be considered; age, sex, and religious background are the most important factors. Also, let’s face it; in some part of the world people are not as accessible as North America and Europe.