Explain the difference between primary data and secondary data.

• A. Primary data are collected for another purpose; secondary data are collected for the current research.
• B. Primary data are numerical; secondary data are qualitative.
• C. Primary data are collected for the research purpose; secondary data were collected for another purpose.
• D. Primary data comes from internal sources; secondary data comes from external sources.

Answer: (C)

The key distinction is about who collected the data and for what purpose. Primary data are collected directly by the researcher to address the specific research questions at hand, with methods and timing chosen to fit those objectives. Secondary data are data that already exist because someone else collected them for another purpose, and the current study uses them without new data collection.

This explains why the statement that aligns with the difference—primary data are collected for the current research, while secondary data were collected for a different purpose—best captures the concept. Other descriptors mix up aspects like data type (numerical versus qualitative) or source vs purpose (internal vs external) and aren’t defining features of primary versus secondary data.