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Survey Methodology
The Orange County Survey is a special edition of the PPIC Statewide Survey, which is directed by Mark Baldassare, research
director at the Public Policy Institute of California, with assistance in research and writing from Jon Cohen, survey research
manager, and Dorie Apollonio and Eliana Kaimowitz, survey research associates. The survey was conducted in collaboration with
the School of Social Ecology at the University of California, Irvine; however, the survey methodology and questions and the
content of this report were solely determined by Mark Baldassare.
The findings of this survey are based on a telephone survey of 2,007 Orange County adult residents interviewed from November 6
to November 14, 2002. Interviewing took place on weekend days and weekday nights, using a computer-generated random sample of
telephone numbers, ensuring that both listed and unlisted telephone numbers were called. All telephone exchanges in Orange
County were eligible for calling. Telephone numbers in the survey sample were called up to five times to increase the
likelihood of reaching eligible households. Once a household was reached, an adult respondent (18 or older) was randomly
chosen for interviewing by using the “last birthday method” to avoid biases in age and gender. Each interview took an average
of 20 minutes to complete. Interviewing was conducted in English or Spanish. Casa Hispana translated the survey into
Spanish.
We used recent U.S. Census and state figures to compare the demographic characteristics of the survey sample with
characteristics of Orange County's adult population. The survey sample was closely comparable to the census and state figures.
The survey data in this report were statistically weighted to account for any demographic differences.
The sampling error for the total sample of 2,007 adults is +/- 2 percent at the 95 percent confidence level. This means that
95 times out of 100, the results will be within 2 percentage points of what they would be if all Orange County adults were
interviewed. The sampling error for subgroups is larger. Sampling error is just one type of error to which surveys are
subject. Results may also be affected by factors such as question wording, question order, and survey timing.
Throughout the report, we refer to two geographic regions. North County refers to cities and communities north of the 55
Freeway, including Anaheim,Anaheim Hills,Brea, Buena Park, Costa Mesa, Cypress, Fountain Valley, Fullerton, Garden Grove,
Huntington Beach, La Habra, La Palma, Los Alamitos, Midway City, Orange, Placentia, Rossmoor, Santa Ana, Seal Beach, Stanton,
Sunset Beach, Tustin, Villa Park, Westminster, and Yorba Linda. South County refers to cities and communities south of the 55
Freeway, including Aliso Viejo, Capistrano Beach, Corona del Mar, Coto de Caza, Dana Point, El Toro, Irvine, Laguna Beach,
Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Woods, Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Modjeska, Newport Beach, Portola Hills, Rancho Santa
Margarita, San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano, Trabuco, and Trabuco Canyon.
We present results for non-Hispanic whites (referred to in the tables and text as “whites”), Latinos, and Asians because each
group accounts for a substantial number of the county’s adult population. We also contrast the opinions of registered
Democrats and Republicans with those who are “independent” or decline to state.
In some cases, we compare the Orange County Survey responses to responses in the 1982-2000 Orange County Annual Surveys at the
University of California, Irvine; the PPIC Statewide Surveys, including the Special Survey of Orange County in 2001; Gallup
Poll (November 2002); Washington Post-Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation-Harvard University survey (March 2001); NBC-Wall
Street Journal Poll (September 1999) and the Index of Consumer Sentiment, Surveys of Consumer Attitudes, Survey Research
Center, University of Michigan (October 2002).
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