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What Is Sample Size

Sample size refers to the number of respondents surveyed from a larger population. Taking a random sample allows researchers to generalize the results to the overall population, rather than surveying everyone. The size of the sample affects the accuracy and statistical significance of the results. Larger samples are more accurate but also more expensive. Researchers must determine factors like population size, confidence level, and margin of error to calculate the optimal sample size using statistical formulas.

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125 views5 pages

What Is Sample Size

Sample size refers to the number of respondents surveyed from a larger population. Taking a random sample allows researchers to generalize the results to the overall population, rather than surveying everyone. The size of the sample affects the accuracy and statistical significance of the results. Larger samples are more accurate but also more expensive. Researchers must determine factors like population size, confidence level, and margin of error to calculate the optimal sample size using statistical formulas.

Uploaded by

redzuan samad
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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What is sample size?

Sample size is a frequently-used term in statistics and market research, and one that
inevitably comes up whenever you’re surveying a large population of respondents. It
relates to the way research is conducted on large populations.

Discover how to improve your overall market research tenfold. 

So what is sampling, and why does sample size matter?

When you survey a large population of respondents, you’re interested in the entire
group, but it’s not realistically possible to get answers or results from absolutely
everyone. So you take a random sample of individuals which represents the population
as a whole.

The size of the sample is very important for getting accurate, statistically significant
results and running your study successfully.

 If your sample is too small, you may include a disproportionate number of


individuals which are outliers and anomalies. These skew the results and you
don’t get a fair picture of the whole population.
 If the sample is too big, the whole study becomes complex, expensive and
time-consuming to run, and although the results are more accurate, the benefits
don’t outweigh the costs.

If you’ve already worked out your variables you can get to the right sample size quickly
with the online sample size calculator below:

Confidence Level:
95%

Population Size:
10000

Margin of Error:
5%

Ideal Sample Size:

If you want to start from scratch in determining the right sample size for your market
research, let us walk you through the steps.

Free eBook: The ultimate guide to conducting market research


Learn how to determine sample
size
To choose the correct sample size, you need to consider a few different factors that
affect your research, and gain a basic understanding of the statistics involved. You’ll
then be able to use a sample size formula to bring everything together and sample
confidently, knowing that there is a high probability that your survey is statistically
accurate.

The steps that follow are suitable for finding a sample size for continuous data – i.e. data
that is counted numerically. It doesn’t apply to categorical data – i.e. put into categories
like green, blue, male, female etc.

Download your sample size guide now, including Z-score table.

Stage 1: Consider your sample


size variables
Before you can calculate a sample size, you need to determine a few things about the
target population and the level of accuracy you need:

1. Population size
How many people are you talking about in total? To find this out, you need to be clear
about who does and doesn’t fit into your group. For example, if you want to know about
dog owners, you’ll include everyone who has at some point owned at least one dog.
(You may include or exclude those who owned a dog in the past, depending on your
research goals.) Don’t worry if you’re unable to calculate the exact number. It’s common
to have an unknown number or an estimated range.

2. Margin of error (confidence interval)


Errors are inevitable – the question is how much error you’ll allow. The margin of error,
AKA confidence interval, is expressed in terms of mean numbers. You can set how
much difference you’ll allow between the mean number of your sample and the mean
number of your population. If you’ve ever seen a political poll on the news, you’ve seen a
confidence interval and how it’s expressed. It will look something like this: “68% of voters
said yes to Proposition Z, with a margin of error of +/- 5%.”
3. Confidence level
This is a separate step to the similarly-named confidence interval in step 2. It deals with
how confident you want to be that the actual mean falls within your margin of error. The
most common confidence intervals are 90% confident, 95% confident, and 99%
confident.

4. Standard deviation
This step asks you to estimate how much the responses you receive will vary from each
other and from the mean number. A low standard deviation means that all the values will
be clustered around the mean number, whereas a high standard deviation means they
are spread out across a much wider range with very small and very large outlying
figures. Since you haven’t yet run your survey, a safe choice is a standard deviation of .5
which will help make sure your sample size is large enough.

Stage 2: Calculate sample size


Now that you’ve got answers for steps 1 – 4, you’re ready to calculate the sample size
you need. This can be done using the online sample size calculator above or with paper
and pencil.

5. Find your Z-score


Next, you need to turn your confidence level into a Z-score. Here are the Z-scores for
the most common confidence levels:

 90% – Z Score = 1.645


 95% – Z Score = 1.96
 99% – Z Score = 2.576

If you chose a different confidence level, use our Z-score table to find your score.

6. Use the sample size formula


Plug in your Z-score, standard of deviation, and confidence interval into the sample size
calculator or use this sample size formula to work it out yourself:
This equation is for an unknown population size or a very large population size. If your
population is smaller and known, just use the sample size calculator above, or find
it here.

What does that look like in practice?

Here’s a worked example, assuming you chose a 95% confidence level, .5 standard
deviation, and a margin of error (confidence interval) of +/- 5%.

((1.96)2 x .5(.5)) / (.05)2

(3.8416 x .25) / .0025

.9604 / .0025

384.16

385 respondents are needed

Voila! You’ve just determined your sample size.

Free eBook: The ultimate guide to conducting market research

Troubleshooting your sample


size results
If the sample size is too big to manage, you can adjust the results by either

 decreasing your confidence level


 increasing your margin of error

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