Telephone Households

A telephone household is one that has some type of telephone service on which members of the household, in theory, can be reached by an external party, assuming they are called at a time they will answer their telephone. By definition, a telephone survey of the public can include only telephone households in its sampling frame.

In the United States, in 2007, approximately 97% of all households had landline (wired) telephone service, cell (wireless) telephone service, or both. The approximately 3% without service at a given point in time— the nontelephone households—are households that may have service a few months of the year but cannot afford it consistently. These households are disproportionately low-income renters, who live in very rural areas or inner-city poverty areas. Telephone surveys ...