Business Statistics

Margin of Error

Margin of Error

Margin of Error is often used in non-survey contexts to indicate observational error in reporting measured quantities. In a confidence interval, the range of values above and statistic expressing the amount of random sampling error in a survey’s results is called the margin of error. It is not expressed as an “absolute” quantity; rather it is expressed as a “relative” quantity. It does not represent other potential sources of error or bias such as a non-representative sample-design, poorly phrased questions, people lying or refusing to respond, the exclusion of people who could not be contacted, or miscounts and miscalculations.