How can a poll of 1,000 people be representative of the political views of the whole nation?
A4 There are two methods for ensuring a poll chooses a sample that is truly representative. ‘Random’ sampling involves a polling company using a list of randomly-generated telephone numbers, email addresses or names and home addresses (if they are being drawn from an electoral register or similar list). These people are then contacted and requested to partake in the survey. Theoretically this selection process gives every elector the same chance of being selected for interview. ‘Quota’ sampling involves setting quotas – for example, of age and gender – and seeking out those people in each location who, together, match those characteristics. Quota polls are frequently used by internet-based pollsters who use quota samples to select representative samples from a database of people who have already provided information about themselves. All polling samples seek to be representative of the total electorate of Great Britain by carefully selecting samples from a variety of social groups. The
