Stratified Sampling
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1. A school inspector visiting Tryker Avenue High School wants to gather the views of students on
homework. She decides to use a sample stratified by the students’ key stage. The table below shows
how many students there are in each key stage:
Key Stage Frequency
3 359
4 243
5 198
If she is going to ask a sample of 40 students, how many students should she ask from each key
stage to ensure the school is fairly represented?
2. A dog toy manufacturer wants to assess the popularity of a new squeaky cat-shaped toy. He visits
a dog rescue centre with 540 dogs and decides to take a sample of 60 dogs. He will stratify the
sample by the mass of the dog. The table shows some information about the mass of the 540 dogs.
Mass (m) kg Frequency
0≤m<10 144
10≤m<20 243
20≤m<30 135
m≥30 18
How many dogs from each category should be in the sample?
Mass (m) kg Number in Sample
0≤m<10
10≤m<20
20≤m<30
m≥30
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Stratified Sampling
3. Town planners want to find out the views of people in the village of Funsbury on building a new
skate park. The table below gives some information about the population of Funsbury.
Age Frequency Hair Colour Frequency
0-18 1287 Brown 3794
19-65 3761 Fair 829
66+ 2109 Other 2534
Total: 7157 Total: 7157
The town planners decide to ask a sample of 50 people what their
views are, and to stratify it by age group. Why do you think they
decided to stratify the sample by age rather than by hair colour?
4. A teacher wants to collect some data from the pupils in year 7 about pocket money. He decides to
stratify the sample by gender and family size. The table gives some data about the pupils.
0 Siblings 1 Sibling 2 Or More Siblings Total
Female 12 47 25 84
Male 10 38 33 81
Total 22 85 58 165
He takes a stratified sample of 45 students. How many of these will be male? How many of these
will be females with 2 or more siblings?
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Stratified Sampling
5. The table shows information about the speed limit on the 175 different roads in Zoomborough.
A civil engineer wants to collect some data about road works on a sample of 35 of these roads. She
decides to stratify this data by speed limit.
Speed Limit (mph) Frequency
20 17
30 3𝑥+3
40 𝑥
50 56
60 𝑦
70 11
Her initial calculation tells her to sample 9.6 roads with a speed limit of 60mph (she will round
this to 10). Find 𝑥 and 𝑦.
6. Explain what a stratified sample is.
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Stratified Sampling Answers
1. A school inspector visiting Tryker Avenue High School wants to gather the views of students on
homework. She decides to use a sample stratified by the students’ key stage. The table below shows
how many students there are in each key stage:
If she is going to ask a sample of 40 students, how many students should she ask from each key
stage to ensure the school is fairly represented?
She should select 18 from key stage 3, 12 from key stage 4, and 10 from key stage 5.
2. A dog toy manufacturer wants to assess the popularity of a new squeaky cat-shaped toy. He visits
a dog rescue centre with 540 dogs and decides to take a sample of 60 dogs. He will stratify the
sample by the mass of the dog. The table shows some information about the mass of the 540 dogs.
How many dogs from each category should be in the sample?
Mass (m) kg Number in Sample
0≤m<10 16
10≤m<20 27
20≤m<30 15
m≥30 2
3. Town planners want to find out the views of people in the village of Funsbury on building a new
skate park. The table below gives some information about the population of Funsbury.
The town planners decide to ask a sample of 50 people what their views are, and to stratify it by
age group. Why do you think they decided to stratify the sample by age rather than by hair colour?
It is likely that different age groups will have quite different views about a new skate park and
it is important to get a range of these views which reflects the population. There is no reason to
think that people’s hair colour would have any impact on their views on a skate park.
4. A teacher wants to collect some data from the pupils in year 7 about pocket money. He decides to
stratify the sample by gender and family size. The table gives some data about the pupils.
He takes a stratified sample of 45 students. How many of these will be male? How many of these
will be females with 2 or more siblings?
There will be 22 males, and 7 females with 2 or more siblings.
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Stratified Sampling Answers
5. The table shows information about the speed limit on the 175 different roads in Zoomborough.
A civil engineer wants to collect some data about road works on a sample of 35 of these roads. She
decides to stratify this data by speed limit. Her initial calculation tells her to sample 9.6 roads with
a speed limit of 60mph (she will round this to 10). Find 𝑥 and 𝑦.
𝑦
175 × 35 = 9.6
𝑦 = 48
17 + 3𝑥 + 3 + 𝑥 + 56 + 48 + 11 = 175
4𝑥 + 135 = 175
𝑥 = 10
6. Explain what a stratified sample is.
A stratified sample is one in which the proportion of individuals with certain defined characteristics
is the same as the proportion of individuals in the population with these characteristics.
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