Advantages and Disadvantages of Secondary Data | Secondary Data Meaning, Sources, Types, Methods and Benefits

Advantages and Disadvantages of Secondary Data 2022: Many researchers are always in search of innovations and technology. For a better understanding, they have to depend on various sources of data. These data can sometimes be primary or secondary depending on the need and urgency of work of a person. Data are generally of two types Primary and Secondary. Both primary and secondary data play an influential role for researchers to analyze and summarize their theory. Secondary data is the most used data by researchers as it has already been searched by former researchers for different purposes. This is reliable to a much extent and also saves time.

Optional information is the information that has been now gathered for one more reason yet has pertinence to your momentum research needs. All in all, it has proactively been gathered in the past by another person, not you. Also, presently, you can utilize the information.

Students can also find more Advantages and Disadvantages articles on events, persons, sports, technology, and many more.

Auxiliary information is recycled data. It isn’t utilized interestingly. To that end, it is called optional. Normally, optional information is found in assets like the Internet, libraries, or reports.

Web data, business reports, broad communications items, reference books, and government measurements are among the most well-known instances of auxiliary information.

Auxiliary information is the information that has been now gathered and promptly accessible from different sources. Such information is less expensive and more rapidly reachable than the essential information and furthermore might be accessible when essential information can not be acquired by any means.

• Advantages of Secondary Data
• Disadvantages of Secondary Data
• Comparison Table for Advantages And Disadvantages of Secondary Data
• FAQs on Pros and Cons of Secondary Data

What is Secondary Data? Advantages and Disadvantages of Secondary Data 2022

Secondary data is the data that has already been searched by the researchers for their purpose and people can access these gathered resources through different journals, books, websites, etc. These sources are available instantly as compared to primary data. The time and effort required to collect data are less. Secondary data by all means are an effective and efficient way to analyze data. But there are a lot of other factors that may lead to misrepresentation or misleading data as the data received may not be relevant for the study.

Therefore there are many advantages and disadvantages of secondary data. Let us see the advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages of Secondary Data

Listed are a few advantages of secondary data.

• Easy to access: Data is available anywhere and anytime it can be in the form of periodicals, magazines, or can be accessed anytime through the internet. People generally use secondary data maximum nowadays to evaluate their studies. A very small example is the students who depend on books, internet sites, and teachers to access information and prepare for exams.
• Low cost or cost-effective: The secondary data is of low cost as data are available at cheap rates, for example, the internet access, newspaper, or periodicals are available at cheaper rates and available in large quantities, so there is no non-availability of data to its users. Thus it is cost-effective.
• Less time taking: Data is available quickly and readily while primary data need to be collected first and then only after summarization data are used. Time taken to collect and analyze data is less than secondary data that is quickly available. Therefore it takes less time to take the source of data.
• Various sources are available to collect data: Secondary data is not only available through one source, but there are multiple sources like books, magazines, the internet, periodicals, and many more. Therefore various sources are available to collect data for analysis for its users. These sources are easily accessible and readily available to their users.
• Data can be collected by anyone: Anyone can collect data whether he /she is specialized in collecting it or not, depending upon the use. Also, there is no ownership of data that can be claimed by its user as data has already been shared by its owner, who was a primary collector of data.
• The study is based on longitudinal analysis: Since the data has been collected over years, thus a longitudinal analysis is done by the researchers with the help of secondary data. The data collected is more reliable and valid for users.

Disadvantages of Secondary Data

Listed are a few disadvantages of secondary data.

1. Inaccuracy: It is a limitation of secondary data that the data collected over the past few years may be inaccurate. The basis of data collected may not be correct or the analysis or interpretation made may not be accurate or relevant.
2. Data may be sometimes outdated: The data provided through different sources may also be outdated as it has been stored and managed for many years. Therefore it may also sometimes be outdated and may not be relevant for today’s scenario.
3. Not compatible with the needs of the user: Since data is related to past surveys and according to the needs of the researchers of that time. It may happen that the present user of this data may not need or not have topics relevant to his study or research. Therefore here instead of outdated data, the data becomes irrelevant for the user to be used in research.
4. Anyone can access data: There is no privatization of data by its owner, data can be accessed by anyone willing to research on that topic. There is no secrecy of data but the user of data cannot appeal their possession or ownership of the data they accessed.
5. Data quality cannot be controlled: The researchers have no control over the quality of data. As data is already surveyed by researchers according to their relevant basis and there may be changes in the surroundings and other factors that may lead to the change in the data provided thus no proper quality can be controlled.
6. Data can be biased: Since data collected by the researcher is based on his/her opinion, therefore data is biased. And it may also have an impact on the data collected by the user of the secondary data.

Comparison Table for Advantages And Disadvantages of Secondary Data

Below is the comparison table for the advantages and disadvantages of secondary data –

From the above, it is easy to compare the advantages and disadvantages of secondary data. Let us see a few FAQs on the pros and cons of secondary data.

FAQs on Pros and Cons of Secondary Data

Question 1.
What is Primary Data?

Answer:
Data collected directly by its user from the primary sources is called primary data.

Question 2.
Why is secondary data more convenient for users?

Answer:
As a user wants to save his time, effort and cost thus, secondary data is more convenient for the user compared to primary data.

Question 3.
What are the advantages of secondary data?

Answer:
The advantages of secondary data are:

• It is prudent. It saves endeavors and costs.
• It is efficient.
• It assists with making essential information assortment more unambiguous since with the assistance of optional information, we can make out what are the holes and lacks and what extra data should be gathered.
• It assists with working on the comprehension of the issue.
• It gives a premise to correlation for the information that is gathered by the scientist.

Question 4.
What are the disadvantages of secondary data?

Answer:
The disadvantages of secondary data are:

• Inaccuracy
• Information might be in some cases obsolete,
• Not viable with the requirements of the client
• Information can be gotten to anybody
• Information quality can’t be controlled
• Information can be one-sided