Questionnaire Length

Questionnaire length refers to the amount of time it takes a respondent to complete a questionnaire. Survey instruments can vary in length from less than a minute to more than an hour. The length of a questionnaire is important because it can directly affect response rates, survey costs, and data quality. Longer questionnaires result in higher data collection costs and greater respondent burden and may lead to lower response rates and diminished quality of response. However, practical experience and experimental data suggest that below a specifie threshold, questionnaire length bears little relationship to response rate or data quality and has only a minor impact on survey costs.

For telephone and online surveys, although longer questionnaires will result in higher data collection costs, it is generally recognized ...