ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to identify the major profile characteristics about which data are usually sought, and to suggest guidelines as to the ways in which these data should be collected. All social surveys, whether self-administered or by interview, collect information about the characteristics of the survey population. This information, or profile data, covers such items as age, sex, marital status, occupation, income and social class. The collection of income data in social surveys presents two broad categories of problems – those of definition and those of method. In general, occupation is the most commonly used indicator of social grouping. There has been almost universal agreement among research investigators that information about age should be collected in all social surveys. The information collected in respect of the four profile characteristics – age, sex, marital status and family or household composition – can be collected in the form of a standardized household composition chart.
