Which of the following is an example of primary data?

• A. A List Of Your Business Competitors Compiled By The Chamber Of Commerce
• B. Information Collected From A Poll Of Your Company Facebook Followers
• C. A Series Of Industry Reports
• D. The United States Census

Answer: (B)

Primary data is information you collect yourself directly for your specific study, designed to answer your research questions. The poll of your company Facebook followers fits this because you create the questions, choose who to survey, and gather the responses for your project. This makes it original data tailored to your needs. The other items are secondary data since they were collected by others for different purposes and not for your current study: a list of competitors from the Chamber of Commerce already existed before your research; industry reports are published by external sources; and the United States Census is government-collected data for nationwide statistics, not data you gathered yourself.