The Vanishing Respondent in Telephone Surveys

ABSTRACT This article examines recent changes in the two major components of nonresponse: inaccessibility of potential respondents and unwillingness of potential respondents to participate in an interview. It considers possible reasons for the increasing difficulty of establishing contact with potential respondents and also considers changes during the last few years in the number of potential respondents who generally refuse to participate in telephone surveys and the demographic correlates of these refusers. Finally, it discusses strategies for reducing the further erosion in response rates and implications of the findings as they bear on the future of telephone surveys.