Non-response error

Error that occurs when the survey fails to get a response to one, or possibly all, of the questions.

Non-response errors result from a failure to collect complete information on all units in the selected sample. These are known as "unit non-response" and "item non-response".

Non-response errors affect survey results in two ways. First, the decrease in sample size or in the amount of information collected in response to a particular question results in larger standard errors. Second, and perhaps more important, a bias is introduced to the extent that non-respondents differ from respondents within a selected sample.

Non-response errors are determined by collecting any or all of the following: unit response rate, weighted unit response rate, item response rate, item coverage rate, refusal rate, distribution of reason for non-response, comparison of data across contacts, link to administrative data for non- respondents, estimate of non-response bias.

urn:sdmx:org.sdmx.infomodel.conceptscheme.Concept=SDMX:CROSS_DOMAIN_CONCEPTS(2.0).NONRESPONSE_ERR

SDMX, "SDMX Glossary Version 2.0", August 2018 

Statistical Policy Working Paper 15: "Quality in Establishment Surveys", Office of Management and Budget, Washington D.C., July 1988