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 although people like to think they are very special and unique, we aren’t. *If sampled correctly,* 1000 subjects is more than adequate for *most surveys, depending on the outcome measure.*

We can design such surveys so that they are “representative” by recruiting subjects from different demographics and areas.