Contactability

The ease or difficulty with which a sampled respondent can be contacted by a survey organization is referred to as her or his "contactability." It can be expressed as a quantity (or "contact propensity") and ranges from 0.0 to 1.0, with 0.0 meaning it is impossible to contact the respondent and 1.0 meaning it is certain that the respondent will be contacted.

Contactability will vary by the mode that is used to attempt to contact a respondent in order to recruit her or his cooperation and/or gather data. Contactability also will vary according to the effort a survey organization expends to reach the respondent and what days and times these contact attempts are tried.

For example, take the case of young adult males, ages 18 to 24 ...