Rotational panel sampling
Also called: Rotational panel design · Topic: Economic Data: Census, NSS, Surveys and Statistical Tools · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Rotational panel sampling is a survey design that visits the same selected households again over several rounds. A panel is a fixed group of households that is surveyed repeatedly. The design is rotational because each household stays only for a set number of visits. When the oldest group leaves, a fresh group joins, so in any round part of the sample is old and part is new. The overlap matters because the same households appear in two rounds back to back, which makes changes from one period to the next more reliable. The risk is attrition: households drop out over time, and the sample can stop being representative.
Example
In the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), launched by the NSO in April 2017, urban households were revisited on a rotational panel from the start. The January 2025 revamp extended the design to both rural and urban areas, and each selected household is now visited four times over four quarters. This makes monthly and quarterly estimates possible, and they rest on CWS (Current Weekly Status, a 7-day look-back).
Don't confuse with
- Cross-sectional survey: draws a completely fresh sample every round. Each round is a one-time snapshot, with no repeat visits to the same households.
- Fixed (pure) panel: keeps the same households for the whole life of the survey and never replaces them. A rotational panel limits each household to a set number of visits and keeps bringing in new ones.