Sample surveys provide one of the most challenging fields for applying the statistical methodology. They confront the researcher with a vast diversity of unique practical problems encountered in the course of studying populations. They include, but are not limited to: non-sampling errors, specific population structures, contaminated distributions of study variables, non-satisfactory sample sizes, incorporation of the auxiliary information available on many levels, simultaneous estimation of characteristics in various subpopulations, integration of data from many waves or phases of the survey and incompletely specified sampling procedures. Omnipresent constraints on time and cost additionally complicate the process of designing a survey. Dealing with such conditions brings about the need for formulating sophisticated statistical procedures dedicated to specific conditions of a sample survey. It gives birth to wide variety of approaches, methodologies and procedures borrowing the strength from virtually all branches of statistics. Studia Ekonomiczne nr 120 Zeszyty Naukowe Wydziałowe Uniwersytetu Ekonomicznego w Katowicach.