Response rates down again
Arbitron has been working since Spring 2003 to deal with the problem of declining response rates, but it continues to be vexed by the growing reluctance of Americans to participate in polls and surveys. The company says its efforts to boost response rates in 10 target low-response metros paid off in the Winter 2005 survey, with the extra effort resulting in a 3.7 percentage point improvement. However, response rates for all metros were down 0.7 points, with the top 10 markets down 0.5% points.
Average Metro Survey Compliance Rates
(percent) Winter 2005 vs. Winter 2004
|
Response Rate
|
Consent Rate
|
Return Rate
|
2005
|
2004
|
Diff.
|
2005
|
2004
|
Diff.
|
2005
|
2004
|
Diff
|
All Markets
|
31.5
|
32.2
|
-0.7
|
55.5
|
56.3
|
-0.8
|
56.2
|
56.6
|
-0.4
|
Top 10
|
29.6
|
30.1
|
-0.5
|
52.8
|
53.4
|
-0.6
|
55.5
|
55.7
|
-0.2
|
Top 25
|
30.5
|
30.7
|
-0.2
|
53.5
|
54.2
|
-0.7
|
56.5
|
56.1
|
0.5
|
Rank 26-50
|
30.6
|
30.4
|
0.1
|
54.6
|
54.5
|
0.1
|
55.5
|
55.3
|
0.2
|
Rank 51-100
|
32.4
|
33.2
|
-0.8
|
56.7
|
57.2
|
-0.5
|
56.7
|
57.6
|
-0.8
|
Rank 101+
|
31.9
|
36.4
|
-4.5
|
57.6
|
63.8
|
-6.2
|
55.1
|
56.7
|
-1.6
|
Source: Arbitron