Margin of error

The margin of error is a statistic expressing the amount of random sampling error in the results of a survey. The larger the margin of error, the less confidence one should have that a poll result would reflect the result of a census of the entire population. The margin of error will be positive whenever a population is incompletely sampled and the outcome measure has positive variance, which is to say, whenever the measure varies.

This article is about the statistical precision of estimates from sample surveys. For observational errors, see Observational error. For safety margins in engineering, see Factor of safety. For tolerance in engineering, see Engineering tolerance. For the eponymous movie, see Margin for error (film).

The term margin of error is often used in non-survey contexts to indicate observational error in reporting measured quantities.

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