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

> How is it acceptable that 0.0002% of the population is accepted as representative?

The math explanation is in other comments, but I’ll give you one better: because we have seen time and time again that they are usually right. Just check surveys for past elections and they will usually be around the actual result. So we’ve come to accept them.