Response rate (also known as completion rate or return rate) in survey research refers to the ratio of number of people who answered the survey divided by the number of people in the sample. It is usually expressed in the form of a percentage. Statistical surveys are used to collect quantitative information in the fields of marketing, political polling, and social science research. ... In algebra, a ratio is the relationship between two quantities. ... There are several uses of the word survey: // Kinds of surveys Statistical surveys are used in marketing and polling research. ... Sample can refer to any of the following. ... A percentage is a way of expressing a proportion, a ratio or a fraction as a whole number, by using 100 as the denominator. ...
Example: if a 1000 surveys were send by mail, and 257 were returned, then the response rate would be 25.7%.
The term "responserate" has a specific meaning to many authors and is generally accepted to designate the ratio of the number of completed interviews divided by the number of eligible units in the sample.
In this case, the responserate is equal to the screening completion rate, i.e., the proportion of units where a decision has been reached as to whether or not a unit is eligible multiplied by the interview completion rate, that is, the proportion of screened eligible responses who completed an interview.
Responserates for various segments of the sampled population in the form of an "Accounting Table" are suggested by the Panel on Incomplete Data.