Retention & Reasons for Noninterview
Retention & Reasons for Noninterview
Sample Representativeness & Attrition
This section reviews the number of respondents by race, sex, and NLSY79 sample type who have continued to be interviewed during all surveys. It also takes a brief look at the racial composition of the cohort at the initial and latest survey points. Table 4 shows the number of respondents, excluding dropped respondents, who were interviewed at all survey points. This table exhibits the high degree of NLSY79 retention. From 1979 to 2020 the survey has been administered 29 times.
Table 4. Percentage of NLSY79 Respondents, Excluding Dropped Respondents, Who Answered Every Survey: 1979-2020
Year | Percent | Number | Year | Percent | Number | |
1979 | 100% | 9964 | 1993 | 73.2% | 7291 | |
1980 | 96.0% | 9571 | 1994 | 71.8% | 7153 | |
1981 | 94.3% | 9395 | 1996 | 69.6% | 6935 | |
1982 | 92.7% | 9234 | 1998 | 69.9% | 6664 | |
1983 | 91.6% | 9125 | 2000 | 63.3% | 6310 | |
1984 | 89.7% | 8942 | 2002 | 60.3% | 6004 | |
1985 | 87.5% | 8721 | 2004 | 57.6% | 5736 | |
1986 | 85.0% | 8472 | 2006 | 55.6% | 5538 | |
1987 | 82.3% | 8203 | 2008 | 54.3% | 5407 | |
1988 | 79.9% | 7957 | 2010 | 52.3% | 5208 | |
1989 | 78.5% | 7819 | 2012 | 50.3% | 5012 | |
1990 | 76.7% | 7642 | 2014 | 48.0% | 4787 | |
1991 | 75.5% | 7521 | 2016 | 46.3% | 4613 | |
1992 | 74.2% | 7396 | 2018 | 44.7% | 4452 | |
2020 | 42.5% | 4239 |
Table 5 shows the distribution of the number of interviews completed by respondents, broken down by sample type. The "# who completed" column shows how many respondents completed exactly that number of surveys. These numbers refer to any surveys completed since the NLSY79 began, not necessarily consecutive surveys completed or surveys completed in particular years. The cumulative percent column shows a cumulative total percent of those completing at least a given number of surveys rather than a percentage of those completing an exact number of surveys. Readers should note the attrition suggested in Table 3 greatly overstates the amount of lost information. The NLSY79 asks detailed questions about work history, education, training, marital status, and fertility since the date of the respondent's last interview. These retrospective questions capture information lost due to missed interviews. Hence, a perfect response record is not needed for researchers to understand how the respondent's life changes over time, unless he or she leaves the survey forever.
Table 5. Number of Interviews Respondents Completed out of 29 Surveys by Sample Type: NLSY79 1979-2020
Total Sample | Cross Sectional Sample | Supplemental Sample | Military Sample | |||||
# of Surveys1 | # who Completed | Cumul. Percent | # who Completed | Cumul. Percent | # who Completed | Cumul. Percent | # who Completed | Cumul. Percent |
1 | 39 | 0.4 | 25 | 0.4 | 14 | 0.4 | 0 | - |
2 | 38 | 0.4 | 22 | 0.4 | 15 | 0.4 | 1 | 0. 5 |
3 | 29 | 0.3 | 19 | 0.3 | 10 | 0.3 | 0 | - |
4 | 38 | 0.4 | 17 | 0.3 | 19 | 0.5 | 2 | 1.0 |
5 | 48 | 0.5 | 35 | 0.6 | 12 | 0.3 | 1 | 0.5 |
6 | 61 | 0.6 | 36 | 0.6 | 25 | 0.7 | 0 | - |
7 | 70 | 0.7 | 50 | 0.8 | 18 | 0.5 | 2 | 1.0 |
8 | 65 | 0.7 | 42 | 0.7 | 22 | 0.6 | 1 | 0.5 |
9 | 80 | 0.8 | 49 | 0.8 | 31 | 0.8 | 0 | - |
10 | 70 | 0.7 | 47 | 0.8 | 22 | 0.6 | 1 | 0.5 |
11 | 71 | 0.7 | 36 | 0.6 | 35 | 1.0 | 0 | - |
12 | 79 | 0.8 | 55 | 0.9 | 22 | 0.6 | 2 | 1.0 |
13 | 96 | 0.9 | 62 | 1.0 | 34 | 0.9 | 0 | - |
14 | 105 | 1.1 | 69 | 1.1 | 35 | 1.0 | 1 | 0.5 |
15 | 108 | 1.1 | 69 | 1.1 | 37 | 1.0 | 2 | 1.0 |
16 | 163 | 1.6 | 101 | 1.7 | 57 | 1.6 | 5 | 2.5 |
17 | 161 | 1.6 | 116 | 1.9 | 42 | 1.2 | 3 | 1.5 |
18 | 206 | 2.1 | 134 | 2.2 | 65 | 1.8 | 7 | 3.5 |
19 | 205 | 2.1 | 131 | 2.1 | 70 | 1.9 | 4 | 2.0 |
20 | 235 | 2.4 | 147 | 2.4 | 82 | 2.2 | 6 | 3.0 |
21 | 227 | 2.3 | 134 | 2.2 | 87 | 2.4 | 6 | 3.0 |
22 | 255 | 2.6 | 147 | 2.4 | 100 | 2.7 | 8 | 4.0 |
23 | 310 | 3.1 | 177 | 2.9 | 122 | 3.3 | 11 | 5.5 |
24 | 340 | 3.4 | 196 | 3.2 | 137 | 3.8 | 7 | 3.5 |
25 | 416 | 4.2 | 261 | 4.3 | 150 | 4.1 | 5 | 2.5 |
26 | 498 | 5.0 | 267 | 4.4 | 213 | 5.8 | 18 | 9.0 |
27 | 625 | 6.3 | 333 | 5.4 | 275 | 7.5 | 17 | 8.5 |
28 | 1087 | 10.9 | 622 | 10.2 | 446 | 12.2 | 19 | 9.5 |
29 | 4239 | 42.5 | 2712 | 44.4 | 1455 | 40.0 | 72 | 35.8 |
Total | 9964 | 100% | 6111 | 100% | 3652 | 100% | 201 | 100% |
Note: Universe excludes the 1,079 members of the military subsample and the 1,643 members of the economically disadvantaged, non-black/non-Hispanic oversample dropped from interviewing; it includes the remaining 9,964 eligible members. | ||||||||
1 Surveys completed in any year, not necessarily consecutive survey years. |
Pages
- « first
- ‹ previous
- 1
- 2
- 3