when carried out correctly on a large population of a defined size systematic sampling can help researchers including marketing and sales professionals obtain representative findings on a huge group of people without having to reach out to each and every one of them 
since simple random sampling of a population can be inefficient and time consuming statisticians turn to other methods such as systematic sampling choosing a sample size through a systematic approach can be done quickly once a fixed starting point has been identified a constant interval is selected to facilitate participant selection systematic sampling is preferable to simple random sampling when there is a low risk of data manipulation if such a risk is high when a researcher can manipulate the interval length to obtain desired results then a simple random sampling technique would be more appropriate systematic sampling is popular with researchers and analysts because of its simplicity researchers generally assume the results are representative of most normal populations unless a random characteristic disproportionately exists with every nth data sample which is unlikely in other words a population needs to exhibit a natural degree of randomness along with the chosen metric if the population has a type of standardized pattern then the risk of accidentally choosing very common cases is more apparent within systematic sampling as with other sampling methods a target population must be selected prior to selecting participants a population can be identified based on any number of desired characteristics that suit the purpose of the study being conducted some selection criteria may include age gender race location education level or profession there are several methods of sampling a population for statistical inference systematic sampling is one form of random sampling 