Poll facts & stats

Question 1

A standard Gallup poll of 1,000 U.S. adults typically has about what margin of error?

Accepted Answer

±4 percentage points. Gallup's routine national polls interview about 1,000 adults; a much larger sample would be needed to shrink the margin of error further.

Question 2

By 2018, what share of people contacted actually completed a typical U.S. telephone survey?

Accepted Answer

about 6%. Response rates fell from about 7% in 2017 to 6% in 2018, continuing a long decline in telephone survey participation.

Question 3

Around 2019, about how many robocalls were placed to U.S. phone numbers every month?

Accepted Answer

about 3.4 billion. Pew Research pointed to the flood of robocalls as a major reason people screen calls and ignore legitimate survey researchers.

Question 4

The U.S. Current Population Survey, the source of the monthly unemployment rate, samples about how many households?

Accepted Answer

about 60,000 households. The Census Bureau conducts this survey monthly, and its sample design was most recently redesigned in 2014.

Poll facts & stats

The basics

A standard Gallup poll of 1,000 U.S. adults typically has about what margin of error?

By 2018, what share of people contacted actually completed a typical U.S. telephone survey?

The U.S. Current Population Survey, the source of the monthly unemployment rate, samples about how many households?

Expert level

Around 2019, about how many robocalls were placed to U.S. phone numbers every month?