Last Updated on October 16, 2025 by Karl Thompson
Social Surveys in Sociology – Summary
A social survey is a research method used to collect information in a standardised way from large numbers of people. Surveys are designed to produce quantitative data that can be easily compared, analysed, and generalised to wider populations. They are one of the main methods used by positivist sociologists.
Definition:
Social surveys are typically questionnaires or structured interviews designed to collect information from large groups of people in a consistent, standardised form.
Types of Questions:
- Closed questions – offer fixed responses, such as Yes/No, multiple-choice, or rating scales (e.g. a Likert scale from 1 to 4).
- Open questions – allow respondents to answer freely in their own words, providing more qualitative insight.
Ways of Administering Surveys:
- Self-completion surveys – the respondent fills in the questionnaire themselves, usually by post, online, or occasionally in person.
- Researcher-administered surveys – the researcher asks the questions directly in a structured interview, either face-to-face or by phone.
Examples:
- The England and Wales Census – a large-scale national survey carried out every ten years to collect demographic information.
- The British Social Attitudes Survey – an annual survey exploring public opinions on topics such as gender, politics, and social class.
In summary, social surveys are a key quantitative method in sociology, valued for their ability to produce reliable, generalisable data, though often criticised for a lack of depth and validity compared to qualitative methods.
What is a Social Survey?
A Social Survey involves obtaining information in a standardised way from large groups of people. The main survey methods are questionnaires and structured interviews.
A wide range of organisations carry out surveys, such as government departments, schools and colleges, businesses, charities, market research and consumer groups. You may well have been stopped in a high street by a market researcher asking your opinion about a new design of chocolate bar wrapper, or phoned by an independent polling company such as Mori asking you to do a brief survey on any number of social issues.
Examples of Social Surveys
Two well-known examples of Social Surveys in the United Kingdom include the England and Wales Census and The British Social Attitudes Survey.
The England and Wales Census
The Census has taken place every ten years except for 1941. The sample for the Census is every household in England and Wales. The government conducted the last Census in 2021 and achieved a response rate of 97%. Most people completed it online during the Pandemic in the spring of 2021, but postal options were available. The Census asks basic information about who lives in the household, employment, education, religion, and health. You can find out more about the Census through the Office for National Statistics Census page.
The British Social Attitudes Survey
The British Social Attitudes Survey – started in 1983 and has now been tracking social attitudes for 40 years. The main method of the BSA is face to face household interviews. However, the latest survey round in 2022 used a slightly different method. Because of the Pandemic, respondents had the option to do the survey by phone following an initial house call. The survey asks respondents about attitudes to a range of social issues: immigration, politics, gender and sexuality, social class, vaping, and marriage, for example.
Types of Social Survey
Social Surveys are typically questionnaires designed to collect information from large numbers of people in standardised form. Researchers prepare surveys in advance of giving them to respondents, and so they have a ‘structure’ to them. Most questionnaires will have a high degree of structure, and it is difficult to see how one could have an ‘unstructured questionnaire’. Because of this questionnaires tend to be a very formal means of collecting data, allowing the researcher little freedom to ‘follow her nose’ unlike other methods such as unstructured interviews or participant observation.
Closed questions
Pre-coded, or closed question questionnaires are those in which the respondent has to choose from a limited range of responses. Two of common types of closed questionnaire are:
- yes/no questions – where the respondent is literally restricted in ticking either ‘yes’ or ‘no’ in response to a question.
- Likehert scale questions – which ask respondents to either strongly agree, agree, disagree, or strongly disagree with a particular statement.
- Other multiple choice options – which will vary depending on the survey. This could be anything from circling age brackets to selecting the type of house you live in.
Closed questions make it easier to quantify responses and analyse data statistically but can lead to the imposition problem, where the researcher imposes their categories rather than capturing how respondents really think.
Open Questions
Open-ended question questionnaires are less structured than pre-coded questionnaires. Although open-ended questionnaires will still usually have set questions, there is no pre-set choice of answers. Open questions allow individuals to write their own answers or dictate them to interviewers.
Different ways of administering surveys
The researcher has a choice of administering her questionnaire in a number of different ways. The most obvious difference choice is between whether respondents complete the surveys themselves, making it a ‘self-completion questionnaire’, or whether the researcher fills in the information, effectively making it a structured interview.
Some of the more obvious choices for ‘administering’ questionnaires include:
- Sending questionnaires by post, or by email.
- Simply putting the questionnaire online so that people can complete it.
- Doing a structured interview in person, either on the street, house to house.
- Doing the interview by phone.
Structured Interviews and Interviewer Bias
Structured interviews use a fixed list of questions asked in the same order each time. Advantages include clarity (respondents can ask for clarification) and higher response rates.
However, they are more time-consuming than questionnaires and open to interviewer bias — the characteristics or behaviour of the interviewer (such as tone, gender, or ethnicity) can influence how people respond.
Training interviewers carefully can reduce this problem, but it is difficult to eliminate completely.
Evaluating Social Surveys
- ✅ Strengths: Reliable, generalisable, suitable for large samples, easy to quantify and compare.
- ❌ Limitations: Often low validity, little depth, inflexible, and risk of imposed meanings.
Recent Social Surveys in Sociology (2023–2024)
| Topic | Survey Example | Key Findings / Details | Methodological Strengths & Weaknesses Illustrated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public attitudes toward AI / data | Public Attitudes to Data and AI: Tracker Survey (Wave 4, 2024) – UK Gov | 96% of UK adults say they are aware of AI; younger people are more likely to say they understand it. | Strengths: Excellent for tracking trends over time; high generalisability; quantitative data easy to analyse. Weaknesses: Self-reported understanding may be superficial; risk of overclaiming knowledge. |
| Teen / Young People’s Mental Health | Mental Health of Children and Young People in England, 2023 (NHS Digital) | Around 1 in 5 young people aged 8–25 had a probable mental disorder in 2023; higher rates among 17–19-year-olds. | Strengths: Large, representative national sample; comparable with previous years. Weaknesses: Self-report bias; lacks depth about underlying causes or lived experience. |
| Public Attitudes to Immigration | ONS Public Opinions and Social Trends, August 2024 | 60% of adults say immigration is one of the most important national issues, up from 43% in October 2022. Ipsos 2024 tracker: 67% say the number of people entering the UK is too high; 50% expect migration to rise over the next year. | Strengths: Representative national survey showing changing attitudes over time; clear, comparable trend data. Weaknesses: Closed questions may oversimplify attitudes; public perceptions can diverge from actual migration data. |
| Deepfakes / Misinformation | Behind the Deepfake: 8% Create; 90% Concerned (2024) | 8% of respondents admitted creating deepfakes; 90% said they were concerned about potential harms. | Strengths: Captures attitudes on a new digital issue; quantifies awareness and concern. Weaknesses: Social desirability bias (underreporting of unethical behaviour); modest sample size. |
Frequently Asked Questions: Social Surveys in Sociology
What is a social survey in sociology?
A social survey is a method of collecting information in a standardised way from large groups of people, often through questionnaires or structured interviews. It produces quantitative data that can be compared and generalised to wider populations.
What are the two main types of social surveys?
he two main types are questionnaires and structured interviews.
Questionnaires are usually self-completed by respondents, while structured interviews are carried out by researchers asking fixed questions in person or over the phone.
What is the difference between open and closed questions in surveys?
Closed questions give respondents a fixed set of answers to choose from (e.g. Yes/No, multiple-choice, or Likert scales).
Open questions allow respondents to answer freely in their own words, giving more qualitative insight.
What are examples of social surveys?
Two key examples used in sociology are:
The England and Wales Census, carried out every ten years to gather demographic data.
The British Social Attitudes Survey, which explores public opinions on issues such as gender, politics, and social class.
What are the advantages of using social surveys?
– They can collect data from large samples, making results representative and reliable.
– The method is standardised, allowing easy comparison between groups or over time.
– They are useful for identifying trends and patterns in social behaviour.
What are the disadvantages of using social surveys?
– They often lack depth and validity because answers are limited to predefined options.
– Respondents may misunderstand questions or give socially desirable answers.
– Low response rates can make it hard to generalise findings.
Who uses social surveys in sociology?
Positivist sociologists prefer social surveys because they provide quantitative data that can be measured and compared objectively.
Government departments, charities, and research organisations also use surveys to inform policy and understand social trends.
How are social surveys different from qualitative research methods?
Social surveys are quantitative — they focus on numbers, patterns, and reliability.
Qualitative methods (like participant observation or unstructured interviews) aim for depth, understanding, and meaning rather than measurement.
References and Further Reading
- Bryman, A. (2016) Social Research Methods, Oxford University Press.
- Office for National Statistics (2021) The Census 2021 Overview.
- NatCen Social Research (2024) British Social Attitudes Survey.
Signposting and Related Posts
I usually teach this material as part of the research methods module within A-level sociology.
Positivists prefer this method and you might like to read this post for more details: Positivism and Social Research (Positivists like the survey method).
Immediately after reading this post you should read Questionnaires in Sociology – Strengths and Weaknesses
which is more evaluative.
If you’re interested in finding out more about the quality and methodology of the UK 2021 Census.
If you’re interested in seeing example of the British Social Attitudes survey questionnaires.
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