UCI

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 Renatta DeFever and Eliana Kaimowitz, survey research associates, and Cheryl Katz, who was the co-director of the Orange County Annual Survey at the University of California, Irvine. The survey was conducted in collaboration with the School of Social Ecology at the University of California, Irvine; however, the survey methods, 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 1,004 Orange County adult residents interviewed from November 4 to November 10, 2003. 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 (age 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 18 minutes to complete. Interviewing was conducted in English or Spanish. Schulman, Ronca & Bucuvalas, Inc. conducted the telephone interviewing.

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 1,004 adults is +/- 3 percent at the 95 percent confidence level. This means that 95 times out of 100, the results will be within 3 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 includes 71 percent of the county population and 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 includes 29 percent of the county population and 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”) and Latinos because each group accounts for a substantial number of the county’s adult population. The sample sizes for the African American and Asian American subgroups are not large enough for separate statistical analysis. 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 and 2002; the 1979 California Tax Revolt Study at the University of California, Berkeley; and national surveys conducted by Newsweek (November 2003), CNN/USA Today/Gallup, ABC News/Washington Post, and the Index of Consumer Sentiment, Surveys of Consumer Attitudes, Survey Research Center, University of Michigan (October 2003).