How to Analyze Survey Results

You have just completed a survey and you are ready to learn the results. Do you know what to do to get the most out of your survey? Follow these steps to analyze your survey results.

Difficulty:

Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Survey results

1. Compile all of the data. This could include but is not limited to the survey questions, survey answers and profiles of the general individuals being surveyed.

2. Check to see that there was a complete understanding of the questions. This can be done by looking to see if there were inconsistent answers by the survey participants, comments regarding questions about the survey or many questions left blank.

3. Look to see what the survey indicates are the areas that need improvement. Is there a question where the majority of participants rated it as "low" or "unsatisfactory"?

4. Look to see what areas are doing well. This will be indicated by consistently high marks by survey takers. Take note. Tactics used in these areas that are doing well may be used to improve low-scoring areas later.

5. Look to see what areas are breaking down. If half or the majority of participants have given a mid-level scores to a particular area, that may be because the area is in need of improvement.

6. Check to see if there was a unified feeling about a certain topic amongst surveyors of similar gender, religious, age, geographic, economic or ethnic group. If the results were bad, how could this group's needs be met best? If the results were good, how could the feeling be spread to other groups of people.

Tips & Warnings

• Keep the questions and answers simple so that the data will be simple to analyze.

• It may help to include a comments section in the survey--this will help during the analysis of the survey to determine if there were any misunderstandings.

• If a survey's questions seem to have been misunderstood, rewrite the survey and be sure to test it before administering it again.

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish