Survey Response Rate Calculator
Enter your final disposition counts — completes, partials, refusals, non-contacts, others, and cases of unknown eligibility — and get all six AAPOR response rates, the four cooperation rates, three refusal rates and three contact rates, each with its formula and working, plus a sentence and an APA reference for your methods section. It follows the AAPOR Standard Definitions (10th edition, 2023), runs in your browser, and uploads nothing. Free, no sign-up.
Final dispositions
Count each sampled case once, by its final disposition. AAPOR's code numbers are shown. Leave a field blank for zero.
Out-of-scope cases such as non-working numbers or non-residences. They are in no rate; they are used only to estimate e below.
Eligibility of the unknown cases (e)
RR3, RR4, REF2 and CON2 need e, the estimated share of unknown cases that are eligible (0 to 1). AAPOR requires you to base it on the best available evidence, state the basis, and never choose it to raise the rate.
Leave e blank to estimate it by proportional allocation from the ineligible count above — the unknown cases are assumed eligible at the same rate as the known ones.
Outcome rates
Enter the disposition counts to see the rates.
How to Use the Survey Response Rate Calculator
- 1. Sort every sampled case into a final disposition. Each case ends in one place: complete, partial, refusal or break-off, non-contact, other eligible non-response, one of three unknown-eligibility codes, or ineligible.
- 2. Enter the counts. Leave a field blank for zero. If your survey had no screening step and everyone in your sample was eligible, the unknown fields are simply zero.
- 3. Settle e. Four of the rates need e, the share of unknown-eligibility cases estimated to be eligible. Type your own estimate, or enter the ineligible cases and leave e blank to estimate it by proportional allocation.
- 4. Pick one rate and report it. Choose the rate, copy the sentence and the reference, and publish the disposition counts alongside it.
The Dispositions
The AAPOR Standard Definitions divide every sampled case into four categories: completed interviews, eligible cases not interviewed, cases of unknown eligibility, and ineligible cases. Each rate is a ratio of sums of these counts; ineligible cases appear in no denominator.
| Symbol | Disposition | AAPOR code |
|---|---|---|
| I | Complete interview | 1.1 |
| P | Partial interview | 1.2 |
| R | Refusal and break-off | 2.10 |
| NC | Non-contact | 2.20 |
| O | Other eligible non-interview | 2.30, 2.90 |
| UH | Unknown if household or occupied unit exists | 3.10 |
| UR | Unknown if sampled unit is eligible | 3.20 |
| UO | Unknown, other | 3.90 |
The difference between a complete and a partial is yours to define before fieldwork begins, for example by the share of questions answered or by whether the essential questions were answered. AAPOR's own examples treat more than 80% of questions answered as a complete and 50–80% as a partial. A break-off, which counts as a refusal, falls below your partial threshold.
The Response Rate Formulas
| Rate | Formula | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| RR1 | I / ((I + P) + (R + NC + O) + (UH + UR + UO)) | Completes only; every unknown case counted as eligible. The minimum. |
| RR2 | (I + P) / ((I + P) + (R + NC + O) + (UH + UR + UO)) | RR1 with partials counted as respondents. |
| RR3 | I / ((I + P) + (R + NC + O) + e(UH + UR + UO)) | Counts only the estimated eligible share of the unknowns. |
| RR4 | (I + P) / ((I + P) + (R + NC + O) + e(UH + UR + UO)) | RR3 with partials counted as respondents. |
| RR5 | I / ((I + P) + (R + NC + O)) | Assumes no unknown case is eligible (e = 0). |
| RR6 | (I + P) / ((I + P) + (R + NC + O)) | RR5 with partials. The maximum. |
AAPOR notes that RR3 is the response rate most commonly reported, and that RR5 and RR6 are appropriate only when it is valid to assume no unknown case is eligible, or when there are none. It also insists you name the rate: “the response rate was X” is unacceptable; “Response Rate 3 was X” is correct.
Cooperation, Refusal and Contact Rates
- Cooperation rates (COOP1–COOP4) ask how many of the eligible people you reached agreed to take part. COOP1 is I / ((I + P) + R + O); COOP3 drops O so that people unable to do an interview are not counted as failing to cooperate. COOP2 and COOP4 add partials to the numerator.
- Refusal rates (REF1–REF3) divide R by the same denominators as RR1, RR3 and RR5.
- Contact rates (CON1–CON3) ask how many eligible cases you reached at all: ((I + P) + R + O) over the RR1, RR3 and RR5 denominators.
Choosing e Honestly
e is the one number in the formulas that you estimate. AAPOR is direct about it: base it on the best available scientific information, state the basis, and never choose a value to boost the rate. Different unknowns can warrant different values — a household that refused a screener and a number never answered are not equally likely to hold an eligible person. This tool offers proportional allocation, which assumes the unknown cases are eligible at the same rate as the cases of known status: e = eligible ÷ (eligible + ineligible). It is a convention, not the only method, and it assumes the unknown cases resemble the known ones, which may not be true. When the unknowns are many, report a range from the minimum (RR1) to the maximum (RR5 or RR6) as well as the rate you prefer.
A Worked Example
Press Try an example: 412 completes, 38 partials, 265 refusals, 190 non-contacts, 22 others, and 250 unknown cases (120 + 90 + 40), with 140 known ineligible. Known eligible cases total 927, so proportional allocation gives e = 927 ÷ 1,067 = 0.869. The results: RR1 35.0%, RR2 38.2%, RR3 36.0%, RR4 39.3%, RR5 44.4%, RR6 48.5%. COOP1 is 55.9%, REF3 is 28.6% and CON3 is 79.5%. The gap between RR1 and RR5 — about 9 points — is what the unknown cases are worth, so a reader sees how much the answer depends on e.
What this calculator does not do
It computes unweighted rates from counts for a sample of known units. AAPOR gives weighted versions of the same formulas for unequal-probability and multistage designs, replacing each count with a weighted total. A response rate also says little by itself about nonresponse bias, and it does not apply in the same way to opt-in samples with no defined list of invitees.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How do you calculate a survey response rate?
- Divide the number of completed surveys by the number of eligible people in the sample. AAPOR's formal versions refine that: RR1 divides completes by all eligible and unknown cases, while RR5 divides them by the known eligible cases. If every person on your list was eligible and reachable, RR1 and RR5 are the same.
- What is the difference between RR1, RR3 and RR5?
- They differ in how they treat cases of unknown eligibility. RR1 counts all of them as eligible, giving the lowest rate; RR5 counts none, giving a higher one; RR3 counts the estimated eligible share (e). RR3 is the one AAPOR describes as most common in reporting.
- What is a good survey response rate?
- There is no universal cut-off. A lower rate does not always mean more bias, and a high one does not guarantee none, as Groves (2006) showed for household surveys. Report the rate, say how you handled nonresponse, and compare your respondents with what you know about the population.
- What is the difference between a response rate and a cooperation rate?
- A response rate asks how many sampled cases responded; a cooperation rate asks how many of the eligible people you actually reached agreed to take part. Non-contacts lower the response rate but do not appear in the cooperation rate.
- How do I cite the AAPOR Standard Definitions in APA?
- The American Association for Public Opinion Research. (2023). Standard definitions: Final dispositions of case codes and outcome rates for surveys (10th ed.). https://aapor.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Standards-Definitions-10th-edition.pdf. In the text, write (AAPOR, 2023). Cite the edition you used.
- How do I count partial responses?
- Decide before fieldwork what makes a partial — for example 50–80% of questions answered — and apply it to every case. Then report rates with and without partials: RR1 versus RR2, or RR3 versus RR4. Reporting both shows how much your definition matters.
- What does e mean in RR3?
- e is the estimated proportion of cases of unknown eligibility that are actually eligible. It must come from evidence, such as the eligibility rate among cases whose status you do know, and you must state how you estimated it.