Unknown Eligibility

Unknown eligible is a category of survey dispositions that is used in all survey modes (telephone, in-person, mail, and Internet) when there is not enough information known about the case to determine whether the case is eligible or ineligible. For this reason, most survey organizations make additional contact attempts on cases categorized into one of the unknown eligibility categories to try to definitively categorize the case into either the eligible or ineligible category. Because the unknown eligible category is broad, researchers usually use a more detailed set of survey disposition codes to better categorize the outcomes of cases that fall into the unknown eligible category.

In a telephone survey, cases are categorized as unknown eligibles under two circumstances: (1) when it is not known whether an ...