Collection of Data

In the words of Crum, Patton and Tebbutt, “Collection means the assembling, for the purpose of particularly investigation of entirely new data, presumably not already available in published sources.”

According to the above definition, collection of data refers to the collection of only primary data for a particular purpose of a statistical enquiry. But as a matter of fact, collection of data also includes the collection of secondary data. Anyway, the work collection of data begins only after all the preliminaries discussed in the previous chapter are gone through carefully.

Types of Data

Statistical data, in the first place, can be classified into two types viz. :

(1) External data and (2) internal data. In the second place, again, data can be classified into two types viz. : (i) Primary data and (2) Secondary data.

External Data.

Data which are collected from outside i.e. external to the organization are called external data. These data, again, may be of primary or secondary nature.

Internal Data.

Data which are collected from inside i.e. internal sources of the organization are called internal data. Examples of such data are the data relation to purchases, sales, incomes, debtors, creditors, assets, liabilities etc. that are obtained from the ledger books, stock registers, and many other relevant records of an organization. These data are mostly of secondary nature.