Selecting a random sample from a set is simple. But what about selecting a fair random sample from a set of unknown or indeterminate size? That’s where reservoir sampling comes in, and [Sam R… ...

A sampling error is a statistical error that occurs when a sample does not represent the entire population. See how to avoid sampling errors in data analysis.

As Americans await election results, many are looking to the polls for clues. From the margins of error to methodology, here’s what to know about presidential polls.

In the current election cycle, many media reports about polls are not including information about the margin of error.

As the director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, which has been taking the pulse of the public on policy issues and elections for the past 30 years, I’ve noted that people have been paying ...

Calculating a margin of error would have been meaningless because the sample did not capture all segments of the population. The larger the sample size, the smaller the margin of error.

The limits of contacting only a sample population bring a certain amount of error into a poll. This is called the sampling error, because a sample by definition doesn’t include everyone.

However, once a certain point is reached, increasing the sample size further has a negligible effect on reducing the margin of error, especially in large populations.

Independents side against prohibition by 52-43%, a slight difference given the sample size. See PDF for full results, charts and tables. Intraparty criticisms also are apparent.