Bangladesh is composed of seven divisions, 64 districts, and 488 upazilas. Each division is named after the largest city within the jurisdiction. The latter administrative unit is comparable to the county-level in the United States. See here for a full summary.
The sample is representative of rural areas in each of the seven divisions of the country plus the Feed the Future zones (italicized) (derived from FTF Basline report):
- Barisal
- Chittagong
- Dhaka
- Khulna
- Rajshahi
- Rangpur
- Sylhet
Around 6,500 households were surveyed using a two-stage stratified sampling design. In stage one, 325 PSUs were allocated to eight strata (7 divisions + FTF zones) using probability proportional-to-size based on the total number of households in each stratum. This step resulted in the following distribution of PSUs:
| Division | PSU distribution | National | FTF |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barisal | 21 | 420 | 280 |
| Chittagong | 48 | 960 | |
| Dhaka | 87 | 1,740 | 240 |
| Khulna | 27 | 540 | 480 |
| Rajshahi | 29 | 580 | |
| Rangpur | 27 | 543 | |
| Sylhet | 36 | 720 | |
| Total | 325 | 5,503 | 1,000 |
After selecting the PSUs, the survey team conducted a complete census of the 325 selected villages. From the census list, 20 households were randomly selected and interviews were conducted with male and female respondents from each household.