The out of sample survey disposition is used in all types of surveys, regardless of mode. Cases with out of sample dispositions are considered ineligible and are not contacted again. As a result, the out of sample disposition is considered a final disposition.

In a telephone survey, out of sample dispositions usually occur when the telephone number dialed by an interviewer rings to a household, business, or individual that is outside of the geographic sampling area for a survey. For example, in a random-digit dial (RDD) survey of the general public, this is most common when the survey is sampling relatively small geographic areas such as counties, towns or villages, or neighborhoods for which telephone prefix boundaries do not conform exactly (or even closely) to geopolitical ...