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Statistics vocabulary · Survey and Study Design

Nonresponse bias

Meaning in statistics, with examples

nounCommon term

In statistics, nonresponse bias means: Bias that arises when the people who do not take part in a survey differ in important ways from those who do, so the results misrepresent the population.

In Turkish: yanıt vermeme yanlılığı, cevapsızlık yanlılığı

How it is used

Also spelled 'non-response bias'. A worry when response rates are low, but a high response rate does not guarantee its absence. Researchers compare respondents with known population figures, follow up non-respondents or apply weights to reduce it.

Example sentences

  1. Busy managers were less likely to reply, so nonresponse bias may have lowered our estimate of working hours.

  2. To check for nonresponse bias, we compared early and late respondents.

Common collocations

  • risk of nonresponse bias
  • assess nonresponse bias
  • adjust for nonresponse
  • non-respondents
  • response rateThe share of people invited to take part in a survey who actually complete it, usually given as a percentage.
  • biasA systematic error that pushes results in one direction, so that estimates are consistently too high or too low rather than just randomly off.
  • surveyA method of collecting information by asking a set of questions to a group of people, usually a sample, in person, by phone, on paper or online.
  • weighted averageAn average in which some values count more than others: each value is multiplied by a weight, the results are added, and the total is divided by the sum of the weights.

More terms: Survey and Study Design

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