The vanishing respondent in telephone surveys

Peter Tuckel and Harry O'Neill

This article examines recent changes in the two major components of nonresponse: inaccessibility of potential respondents and unwillingness of potential respondents to participate in an interview.

The Vanishing Respondent In Telephone Surveys

Peter TuckelHunter College, CUNY andHarry O'NeillRoperASW

As is well known, response rates to telephone surveys have undergone a steep decline over the last several decades (see, for example, Brehm, 1993; Groves and Couper, 1998). This decline adds considerably to the costs of administering these surveys and, more importantly, calls into question the generalizability of the results.

For the most part, survey researchers attribute the long-term decline in response rates to the growth in the number of potential respondents who refuse to participate in a survey. There is evidence,...

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