So what is sampling, and why does sample size matter?

When you survey a large population of respondents, you’re interested in the entire group, but it’s not realistically possible to get answers or results from absolutely everyone. So you take a random sample of individuals which represents the population as a whole.

The size of the sample is very important for getting accurate, statistically significant results and running your study successfully.

• If your sample is too small, you may include a disproportionate number of individuals which are outliers and anomalies. These skew the results and you don’t get a fair picture of the whole population.
• If the sample is too big, the whole study becomes complex, expensive and time-consuming to run, and although the results are more accurate, the benefits don’t outweigh the costs.

You can get to the right sample size quickly using the calculator below: