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Survey Nonresponse Trends and Fieldwork Effort in the 21st Century: Results of an International Study across Countries and Surveys

Author

Listed:
  • Luiten Annemieke

    (Statistics Netherlands, P.O. Box 4481, 6401 CZ Heerlen. theNetherlands.)

  • Hox Joop

    (Department of Methodology and Statistics, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80140, 3508 TC, Utrecht, theNetherlands.)

  • de Leeuw Edith

    (Department of Methodology and Statistics, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80140, 3508 TC, Utrecht, theNetherlands.)

Abstract

For more than three decades, declining response rates have been of concern to both survey methodologists and practitioners. Still, international comparative studies have been scarce. In one of the first international trend analyses for the period 1980–1997, De Leeuw and De Heer (2002) describe that response rates declined over the years and that countries differed in response rates and nonresponse trends. In this article, we continued where De Leeuw and De Heer (2002) stopped, and present trend data for the next period 1998–2015 from National Statistical Institutes. When we looked at trends over time in this new data set, we found that response rates are still declining over the years. Furthermore, nonresponse trends do differ over countries, but not over surveys. Some countries show a steeper decline in response than others, but all types of surveys show the same downward trend. The differences in (non)response trends over countries can be partly explained by differences in survey design between the countries. Finally, for some countries cost indicators were available, these showed that costs increased over the years and are negatively correlated with noncontact rates.

Suggested Citation

  • Luiten Annemieke & Hox Joop & de Leeuw Edith, 2020. "Survey Nonresponse Trends and Fieldwork Effort in the 21st Century: Results of an International Study across Countries and Surveys," Journal of Official Statistics, Sciendo, vol. 36(3), pages 469-487, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:vrs:offsta:v:36:y:2020:i:3:p:469-487:n:2
    DOI: 10.2478/jos-2020-0025
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Larsen Luke J. & Lineback Joanna Fane & Reist Benjamin M., 2020. "Continuing to Explore the Relation between Economic and Political Factors and Government Survey Refusal Rates: 1960–2015," Journal of Official Statistics, Sciendo, vol. 36(3), pages 489-505, September.
    2. Schouten, Barry & Shlomo, Natalie & Skinner, Chris J., 2011. "Indicators for monitoring and improving representativeness of response," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 39121, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Joop Hox & Edith Leeuw, 1994. "A comparison of nonresponse in mail, telephone, and face-to-face surveys," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 28(4), pages 329-344, November.
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    1. Martin Ravallion, 2022. "Missing Top Income Recipients," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 20(1), pages 205-222, March.
    2. Bergh, Andreas & Bjørnskov, Christian & Öhrvall, Richard, 2023. "Nonresponse Bias in Trust Surveys," Working Paper Series 1455, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.

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