Polls

At a recent get together, someone mentioned polls and wondered who actually gets polled for these statistics. She'd never participated in a poll and was convinced that noone she knew had ever participated in one, either. She said she'd actually called up friends and family once to see if anyone had participated in a poll.

Now, the numbers are stacked: according to The Roper Center, the world's largest library of public opinion:

The US Census tells us there are more than 200 million American adults and most polls generally include about 1,000 respondents. So, let's say 2,500 national polls are completed each year, that's only 2,500,000 people. Assuming no one is interviewed more than once, the odds of being called in any given year are just over 1 in 100.

Have you ever participated in a public opinion poll?