We all love to eat food while some people prefer to cook raw food which is time-consuming while some people prefer frozen food as it takes little effort and less time-consuming. In the case of statistics, primary data is similar to raw food as it requires considerable effort and time to collect primary data while secondary data is similar to frozen food as this data is readily available in the market and does not require much effort and time for collecting secondary data. In order to understand more about this concept, one should look at some of the important characteristics of secondary data –
Secondary Data Characteristics
Inexpensive
The first and foremost characteristic of secondary data is that it is inexpensive because since these data is readily available in the market one can easily get the data which is not the case with primary data where the company has to employ many people in order to collect first-hand data which naturally involves a lot of costs on the part of the company. In simple words, if the objective of the company is to save costs rather than relying on the originality of data then the company can go for secondary data.
Quick Collection of Data
It can be collected quickly as all the data is readily available in the market and one does not have to go from one place to another for the collection of data. In simple words when it comes to speed there is no comparison between primary data and secondary data as primary data is more like a passenger train as it takes time to collect the primary data while secondary data is more like a bullet train as it is readily available as and when required by the person looking to collect such data.
Indirect and Irrelevant Information
Secondary data is an indirect source of data because the objective for which the data is needed will be direct only if the company or an individual collects primary data and hence in the case of secondary data there is lots of irrelevant information that is of no use to the person using the data. In simple words suppose you want to collect data or research about poverty and unemployment which are economic terms but you look at general knowledge sources which are available in the market than apart from economic terms you will also find health-related terms, science-related terms, sports-related terms and so on which does not have any relation and are irrelevant to your research about poverty and unemployment topics.
Sources of Data
Secondary data can be collected from two sources one is published sources which include newspapers, journals, magazines, research papers, and so on while the other is unpublished sources which include the unpublished thesis of people doing higher studies or professional courses, reports of companies which are meant for the internal purpose and so on.
Additional Information
Secondary data can be used as additional information to primary data which is collected, in simple words just like frozen food items can be used with freshly cooked foods so to improve the taste of food in the same way secondary data can be used with primary data to increase the effectiveness of primary data and make the information more reliable and effective.
As one can see from the above that secondary data has some important characteristics and that is the reason why anyone collecting secondary data for information purpose should know it’s characteristics so that there is no scope for any mistake because sometimes frozen food can be of the expiry date or bad in the same way secondary data may also be outdated and of no use for the current purpose.