ORANGE COUNTY ANNUAL SURVEY 1999

SURVEY METHODOLOGY

The 1999 Orange County Annual Survey was directed by Mark Baldassare, 
professor and Roger W. and Janice M. Johnson Chair in Civic Governance and 
Public Management at UCI, and Senior Fellow at the Public Policy Institute 
of California. Cheryl Katz, research associate, was co-director. The 
random telephone survey included interviews with 1,000 Orange County adult 
residents conducted September 1 to September 13, 1999. We follow the 
methods used in the 17 previous surveys. 

Interviewing was conducted on weekend days and weekday nights, using a 
computer-generated random sample of telephone numbers. Within a household, 
adult respondents were randomly chosen for interview. Each interview took 
an average of 20 minutes to complete. The interviewing was conducted in 
English and Spanish as needed. The completion rate was 65%. Telephone 
interviewing was conducted by Interviewing Services of America in Van 
Nuys, CA. The sample's demographic characteristics were comparable to data 
from the U.S. Census, California Department of Finance, and previous 
Orange County Annual Surveys.

The sampling error for this survey is +/- 3% at the 95% 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 adults in Orange County 
were interviewed. The sampling error for any subgroup would be 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, 
ordering, and survey timing.

Throughout the report, we refer to two geographic regions. North refers to 
cities and communities north of the 55 Freeway, including Anaheim, Orange, 
Villa Park, La Habra, Brea, Buena Park, Fullerton, Placentia, Yorba Linda, 
La Palma, Cypress, Los Alamitos, Rossmoor, Seal Beach, Westminster, Midway 
City, Stanton, Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach, Santa Ana, Garden Grove, 
Tustin, Tustin Foothills and Costa Mesa. South refers to cities and 
communities south of the 55 Freeway, including Newport Beach, Irvine, Lake 
Forest, Newport Coast, Aliso Viejo, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Laguna 
Woods, Mission Viejo, Portola Hills, Rancho Santa Margarita, Foothill 
Ranch, Coto de Caza, Trabuco, Laguna Beach, Dana Point, San Clemente, 
Capistrano Beach and San Juan Capistrano. In the analysis of questions on 
the proposed El Toro airport, we include Newport Beach in the North 
County. 

Some of the questions in this survey are repeated from national surveys 
conducted by the University of Michigan, the Pew Research Center and the 
American Association of Retired Persons. Questions with state comparisons 
are repeated from the Public Policy Institute of California's Statewide 
Surveys, directed by Mark Baldassare.