<P> Secondary data refers to data that was collected by someone other than the user . Common sources of secondary data for social science include censuses, information collected by government departments, organisational records and data that was originally collected for other research purposes . Primary data, by contrast, are collected by the investigator conducting the research . </P> <P> Secondary data analysis can save time that would otherwise be spent collecting data and, particularly in the case of quantitative data, can provide larger and higher - quality databases that would be unfeasible for any individual researcher to collect on their own . In addition, analysts of social and economic change consider secondary data essential, since it is impossible to conduct a new survey that can adequately capture past change and / or developments . However, secondary data analysis can be less useful in marketing research, as data may be outdated or inaccurate . </P>

Definition of primary data and secondary data in statistics
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