How is it that in the U.S.,surveys of 1,000 are accepted as representative of the entire country?

Question

I’ve noticed most U.S. polls query around 1,000 people and sometimes even less. Somehow that qualifies for headlines like “Americans say…” or “Most Americans…” How is it acceptable that 0.0002% of the population is accepted as representative?

In: Other

Answer 1

Because the findings don’t typically change too much if you poll more than that. So a survey of 1000 people that shows support for some issue at 55% has as much validity as a survey of 10,000 that shows support for the issue at about the same percentage.

Basically, you can get defendable data without having to waste time with more surveys.