Sampling Design in SHARE Wave 8 and Recruitment of Refreshment Samples until the Suspension of Fieldwork

The aim of the SHARE survey design is to be able to draw inferences about the population of people aged 50 years or older across countries by using probability-based sampling. This chapter documents the sampling design adopted in the eighth wave of SHARE that had to be suspended due to COVID-19 in March 2020. Starting with a definition of the SHARE target population, we describe the protocol for harmonizing and documenting the sampling procedure and present the sampling frames used by the countries that recruited a baseline or refreshment sample in Wave 8. We then discuss some important aspects of the SHARE sampling designs, such as stratification, clustering, variation in selection probabilities and sample composition. Finally, we provide additional information about the sampling variables provided in the SHARE release.