How does the CHIS sample represent California?
Because it is not feasible to survey every household in California, CHIS uses a probability sampling method in an attempt to accurately represent the population of adults, adolescents, and children living within households in California. This means that the CHIS sample excludes institutionalized group quarter residents (e.g. residents of correctional institutions such as jails or nursing homes) and non-institutionalized group quarter residents (e.g. residents of college dormitories, military quarters on base). And because CHIS is not a simple random sample, in order to make CHIS representative of California, population weights must be applied to produce accurate population estimates and totals.
