Statistical
Sample Size Calculator
Before using
the sample size calculator, there are two terms that you need to
know. These are: confidence interval and confidence level.
To learn more about the other factors that affect the size
of confidence intervals.
This calculator
requires Internet Explorer 3.0 or later or Netscape 3.0 or later
or a compatible browser. Leave the population box blank, if
the population is very large or unknown.
Confidence
Intervals & Levels
The
confidence interval is the plus-or-minus figure usually
reported in newspaper or television opinion poll results. For example,
if you use a confidence interval of 4 and 47% percent of your sample
picks an answer you can be "sure" that if you had asked
the question of the entire relevant population between 43% (47-4)
and 51% (47+4) would have picked that answer.
The confidence
level tells you how sure you can be. It is expressed as
a percentage and represents how often the true percentage of the
population who would pick an answer lies within the confidence interval.
The 95% confidence level means you can be 95% certain; the 99% confidence
level means you can be 99% certain. Most researchers use
the 95% confidence level.
When you put
the confidence level and the confidence interval together, you can
say that you are 95% sure that the true percentage of the population
is between 43% and 51%.
The wider the
confidence interval you are willing to accept, the more certain
you can be that the whole population answers would be within that
range. For example, if you asked a sample of 1000 people in a city
which brand of cola they preferred, and 60% said Brand A, you can
be very certain that between 40 and 80% of all the people in the
city actually do prefer that brand, but you cannot be so sure that
between 59 and 61% of the people in the city prefer the brand.
There are
three factors that determine the size of the confidence interval
for a given confidence level. These are: sample size, percentage
and population size.
Sample Size
The larger your
sample, the more sure you can be that their answers truly reflect
the population. This indicates that for a given confidence level,
the larger your sample size, the smaller your confidence interval.
However, the relationship is not linear (i.e., doubling the sample
size does not halve the confidence interval).
Percentage
Your accuracy
also depends on the percentage of your sample that picks a particular
answer. If 99% of your sample said "Yes" and 1% said "No"
the chances of error are remote, irrespective of sample size. However,
if the percentages are 51% and 49% the chances of error are much
greater. It is easier to be sure of extreme answers than of middle-of-the-road
ones.
When determining
the sample size needed for a given level of accuracy you must use
the worst case percentage (50%). You should also use this percentage
if you want to determine a general level of accuracy for a sample
you already have. To determine the confidence interval for a specific
answer your sample has given, you can use the percentage picking
that answer and get a smaller interval.
Population
Size
How many people
are there in the group your sample represents? This may be the number
of people in a city you are studying, the number of people who buy
new cars, etc. Often you may not know the exact population size.
This is not a problem. The mathematics of probability proves the
size of the population is irrelevant, unless the size of the sample
exceeds a few percent of the total population you are examining.
This means that a sample of 500 people is equally useful in examining
the opinions of a state of 15,000,000 as it would a city of 100,000.
For this reason, The Survey System ignores the population size when
it is "large" or unknown. Population size is only likely
to be a factor when you work with a relatively small and known group
of people (e.g., the members of an association).
The
confidence interval calculations assume you have a genuine random
sample of the relevant population. If
your sample is not truly random, you cannot rely on the intervals.
Non-random samples usually result from some flaw in the sampling
procedure. An example of such a flaw is to only call people during
the day, and miss almost everyone who works. For most purposes,
the non-working population cannot be assumed to accurately represent
the entire (working and non-working) population.
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