Response Rate Calculator

Response rate measures participation: the percentage of invited individuals who actually responded to your survey. It's one indicator of data quality, but not the only one.

Why Response Rate Matters

• Non-response bias — Low response rates increase the risk that respondents differ systematically from non-respondents
• Generalizability — Higher response rates generally support stronger claims about the target population
• Credibility — Reporting response rates is standard practice in academic and professional research

Benchmark Caveats

The interpretation labels (Low, Average, Good, Excellent) are general guidelines based on meta-analyses of survey response rates. Actual benchmarks vary significantly by:

• Survey mode — Email surveys typically see 10–30%; phone surveys often higher
• Population — Employee surveys often exceed 50%; general public surveys rarely do
• Topic — Salient or personally relevant topics drive higher participation
• Incentives — Even small incentives can substantially boost response rates

Response Rate vs. Completion Rate

Response rate measures who started; completion rate measures who finished. High response rate with low completion rate suggests your survey may be too long or have problematic questions that cause drop-off.

What Response Rate Does NOT Tell You

• Response quality — A high response rate doesn't guarantee thoughtful answers
• Representativeness — Even 80% response can be biased if the 20% who didn't respond differ systematically
• Sampling validity — Response rate is meaningless if the initial sample was flawed

For a deeper discussion of response rate limitations, see our guide on when high response rates still produce bad data.