Suppose you chose the 95% confidence level – which is pretty much the standard in quantitative research 1 – then in 95% of the time between 85% and 95% of the population likes the ‘Fall 2016’ line 2. Or, following on our previous example, it tells you how sure you can be that between 85% and 95% of the population likes the ‘Fall 2016’ campaign. This tells you how often the percentage of the population that likes the ‘Fall 2016’ line actually lies within the boundaries of the margin of error. If – let’s hope so! – 90% of your survey respondents like the ‘Fall 2016’ line, a 5% margin of error means that you can be ‘sure’ that between 85% (90%-5) and 95% (90%+5) of the entire population actually likes the ‘Fall 2016’ line. Suppose you set your margin of error on 5%. An example will shed some light on this statistical explanation. Or, in other words, the deviation between the opinions of your respondents and the opinion of the entire population. In short, this is the positive and negative deviation you allow on your survey results for the sample. First of all there is the margin of error (or confidence intervals).There are two measures that affect the accurateness of the data. In other words, how closely you want your results to match those of the entire population. So, how large should your sample be? Should you survey 1%, 5%, 10%, … of the adult citizens in the EU? Well, this depends largely on how accurate you want your survey data to be. After all, a sample that is too big will lead to the waste of precious resources such as time and money, while a sample that is too small will not allow you to gain reliable insights. Using a correct survey sample size is crucial for your research. A sample is a selection of respondents chosen in such a way that they represent the total population as good as possible. However, instantly a new question comes to the forefront: “How many people should my sample consist of?”. A sample of adults living in the EU offers the solution for this issue. Assuming that you are launching the new line on the European market, that minors do not buy furniture and that your furniture is reasonably priced, your population consists of all adults in the EU.įor obvious reasons it is impossible to survey those (roughly) 400 million adults in the EU. Or, who do you need to survey to gain valuable insights in the success of your new furniture line? In this case the answer is rather straightforward. Yet, the following question will almost instantly arise: “What is the population that I would like to survey?”. However, before you launch the new line you wish to conduct an online survey on whether your line ‘Fall – 2016’ is more or less likely to be a hit or miss on the European Union (EU) market. So far, so good. Say you’re a market research manager at a furniture company and you are planning to launch a new furniture line by the end of 2016. In other words, who will you be surveying and how many people? No idea? No worries.

However, determining the ideal survey sample size and population can prove tricky. A survey can only be truly valuable when it’s reliable and representative for your business.

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