Informant
Also called: Respondent · Topic: Economic Data: Census, NSS, Surveys and Statistical Tools · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 2 "Collection of Data"; Class 11, Ch 8 "Use of Statistical Tools"
Meaning
The informant, also called the respondent, is the person or unit that gives the information in a survey. The quality of the data depends on the informant's answers. Forgetting, refusing to answer or giving wrong answers all create errors that a larger sample does not fix.
Example
In a household consumption survey, the head of the household who reports the family's monthly spending is the informant. If affluent informants refuse to answer or under-report, survey consumption falls short of the national-accounts figure for private consumption spending.
Don't confuse with
- Enumerator: the enumerator is the trained person who asks the questions and records the answers. The informant is the one who answers.
Related concepts
- Primary data
- Secondary data
- Survey
- Variable
- Observation
- Questionnaire
- Enumerator
- Closed-ended question
- Open-ended question
- Leading question