Using a Census for Small Populations
One approach is to use the entire population as the sample.
Although cost considerations make this impossible for large
populations, a census is attractive for small populations
(e.g., 200 or less). A census eliminates sampling error and
provides data on all the individuals in the population. In
addition, some costs such as questionnaire design and
developing the sampling frame are “fixed,” that is, they
will be the same for samples of 50 or 200. Finally, virtually
the entire population would have to be sampled in small
populations to achieve a desirable level of precision.