Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. In statistics, survey sampling describes the process of selecting a sample of elements from a target population in order to conduct a survey.A survey may refer to many different types or techniques of observation, but in the context of survey sampling it most often refers to a questionnaire used to measure the characteristics and/or attitudes of people. The purpose of sampling is to reduce the cost and/or the amount of work that it would take to survey the entire target population. A survey that measures the entire target population is called a census.