The percentage of people who responded to an offer, or the number of responses divided by the number of offers made
The proportion of those people originally drawn at random from the population who actually end up taking part in a survey This will show whether the data being collected accurately reflects the views of the population being interviewed If the response rate is low it is important to examine the profile of the sample and assess whether weighting or other methods would help to improve the quality of the data
The percentage of persons who actually respond to a survey out of the total number of persons who were asked to respond
The percentage of potential respondents with whom completed questionnaires are accomplished Examples The "return rate" of mailed-out questionnaires The percent of qualified computer users called who finish the interview Typically ineligible members of the sample are excluded from the denominator
The proportion of those people originally drawn at random from the population who actually end up taking part in a survey This will help indicate whether the data being collected accurately reflects the views of the population being interviewed If the response rate is low it is important to examine the profile of the sample and assess whether weighting or other methods would help to improve the quality of the data
The ratio of returned questionnaires to the survey designed universe Response Rate = Returns-------------------------Designed Universe x 100 The denominator is the number of designed subjects, whether a sample or a population, that was approached by mail, telephone, or other channel of investigation The numerator is the number of actual responses