India - Social Consumption - Education Survey 2014, NSS 71st Round

Outline of sample design: A stratified multi-stage design has been adopted for the 71st round survey. The first stage units (FSU) are the census villages (Panchayat wards in case of Kerala) in the rural sector and Urban Frame Survey (UFS) blocks in the urban sector. The ultimate stage units (USU) are households in both the sectors. In case of large FSUs, one intermediate stage of sampling is the selection of two hamlet-groups (hgs)/ sub-blocks (sbs) from each rural/ urban FSU.

Sampling Frame for First Stage Units: For the rural sector, the list of 2011 census villages (henceforth the term 'village' would mean Panchayat wards for Kerala) constitutes the sampling frame. In case of Kerala, due to the non-availability of Panchayat wards based on census 2011, the available list of Panchayat wards based on census 2001 is used as the rural frame. For the urban sector, the latest updated list of UFS blocks (phase 2007-12) is considered as the sampling frame.

Stratification: Stratum has been formed at district level. Within each district of a State/UT, generally speaking, two basic strata have been formed: (i) rural stratum comprising of all rural areas of the district and (ii) urban stratum comprising of all the urban areas of the district. However, within the urban areas of a district, if there are one or more towns with population 1 lakh or more as per Census 2011, each of them formed a separate basic stratum and the remaining urban areas of the district has been considered as another basic stratum.

Special stratum in the rural sector: There are some villages in Nagaland and Andaman & Nicobar Islands which reamins difficult to access. As in earlier rounds, a special stratum has been formed at State/UT level comprising these villages in the two State/UTs.

Sub-stratification:

Rural sector: If 'r' be the sample size allocated for a rural stratum, the number of sub-strata formed was 'r/2'. The villages within a district as per frame have been first arranged in ascending order of population. Then sub-strata 1 to 'r/2' have been demarcated in such a way that each sub-stratum comprised a group of villages of the arranged frame and had more or less equal population.
Urban sector: If 'u' be the sample size allocated for an urban stratum, the number of sub-strata formed was 'u/2'. For all strata, if u/2 >1, implying formation of 2 or more sub-strata, all the UFS blocks within the stratum have been first arranged in ascending order of total number of households in the UFS Blocks as per UFS phase 2007-12. Then sub-strata 1 to 'u/2' have been demarcated in such a way that each sub-stratum had more or less equal number of households.

Total sample size (FSUs): 8300 FSUs have been allocated for the central sample at all-India level. For the state sample, there are 9274 FSUs allocated for all-India. State wise allocation of sample FSUs is given in Table 1.

Allocation of total sample to States and UTs: The total number of sample FSUs heve been allocated to the States and UTs in proportion to population as per Census 2011 subject to a minimum sample allocation to each State/ UT. While doing so, the resource availability in terms of number of field investigators has been kept in view.

Allocation of State/ UT level sample to rural and urban sectors: State/UT level sample size has been allocated between two sectors in proportion to population as per Census 2011 with double weightage to urban sector subject to the restriction that urban sample size for bigger states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu etc. do not exceed the rural sample size. A minimum of 16 FSUs (minimum 8 each for rural and urban sector separately) is allocated to each State/ UT.

Allocation to strata: Within each sector of a State/ UT, the respective sample size has been allocated to the different strata in proportion to the population as per Census 2011. Stratum level allocation has been adjusted to multiples of 2 with a minimum sample size of 2.

For special strata in the rural areas of Nagaland and A & N Islands, 4 FSUs has been allocated to each.

Allocation to sub-strata: Allocation for each sub-stratum has been 2 in both rural and urban sectors.

Selection of FSUs:

For the rural sector, from each stratum/sub-stratum, required number of sample villages have been selected by Probability Proportional to Size With Replacement (PPSWR), size being the population of the village as per Census 2011.
For the urban sector, from each stratum/sub-stratum, FSUs have been selected by Probability Proportional to Size With Replacement (PPSWR), size being the number of households of the UFS Blocks.
Both rural and urban samples have been drawn in the form of two independent sub-samples and equal number of samples has been allocated among the two sub rounds.
Selection of hamlet-groups/ sub-blocks - important steps
Criterion for hamlet-group/ sub-block formation: After identification of the boundaries of the FSU, it is to be determined whether listing will be done in the whole sample FSU or not. In case the approximate present population of the selected FSU is found to be 1200 or more, it will be divided into a suitable number (say, D) of 'hamlet-groups' in the rural sector and 'sub-blocks' in the urban sector by more or less equalising the population as stated below.


approximate present population of the sample FSU no. of hg's/sb's to be formed

less than 1200 (no hamlet-groups/sub-blocks) 1
1200 to 1799 3
1800 to 2399 4
2400 to 2999 5
3000 to 3599 6
.......and so on -



For rural areas of Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Uttarakhand (except four districts Dehradun, Nainital, Hardwar and Udham Singh Nagar), Poonch, Rajouri, Udhampur, Reasi, Doda, Kistwar, Ramban, Leh (Ladakh), Kargil districts of Jammu and Kashmir and Idukki district of Kerala, the number of hamlet-groups will be formed as follows:

approximate present population of the sample village no. of hg's to be formed

less than 600 (no hamlet-groups) 1
600 to 899 3
900 to 1199 4
1200 to 1499 5
1500 to 1799 6
.…..and so on -


Formation and selection of hamlet-groups/ sub-blocks: In case hamlet-groups/ sub-blocks are to be formed in the sample FSU, the same should be done by more or less equalizing population. Note that while doing so, it is to be ensured that the hamlet-groups/ sub-blocks formed are clearly identifiable in terms of physical landmarks.

Two hamlet-groups (hg)/ sub-blocks (sb) will be selected from a large FSU wherever hamlet-groups/ sub-blocks have been formed in the following manner - one hg/ sb with maximum percentage share of population will always be selected and termed as hg/ sb 1; one more hg/ sb will be selected from the remaining hg's/ sb's by simple random sampling (SRS) and termed as hg/ sb 2. Listing and selection of the households will be done independently in the two selected hamlet-groups/ sub-blocks. The FSUs without hg/ sb formation will be treated as sample hg/ sb number 1.


There was no deviation from the original sample deviation.



No. of first stage units (f.s.u's) is 8269 and No. of Second stage units (s.s.u's) is 65926


For generating any estimate, one has to extract relevant portion of the data, and aggregate after applying the weights.

Weights (or multipliers) VARIABLES are given at the end of record of each dataset. The weights (multipliers) are WGT_SS for Sub-sample-wise estimation and WGT_Combined for combined subsample estimates.

All records of a household will have same weight figure. In case of those Blocks/Levels, where Item/Person Sl.No. is not applicable the field is filled up with 00000.

Use of subsample-wise weights (multipliers)

For generating subsample-wise estimates based on data of all subrounds taken together, either Subsample-1 households or Subsample-2 households are to be considered at one time. Subsample code is available in the dataset For generating subsample-combined estimates based on data of all subrounds taken together all households are to be considered.