Incidence Rate Calculator for Survey Screeners
Calculate survey incidence from screener results, combine several qualifying criteria, and see how many people you must screen for your target completes.
inquiry@globalvoxpopuli.com · globalvoxpopuli.com
What is incidence rate in market research?
Incidence rate (IR) is the percentage of people screened who qualify for a survey. If you screen 1,000 panelists and 120 meet all the criteria, incidence is 12%. Together with survey length, incidence is one of the two main drivers of fieldwork cost: the lower it is, the more people you must contact for each complete.
How to use the incidence rate calculator
- From screener results: enter how many people qualified and how many were screened out. Use this during or after fieldwork, or from a pilot.
- From criteria: list each qualifying condition with the share of people who pass it. Use this to estimate incidence before fieldwork.
- Enter your target completes and expected drop-out to see how many people must be screened.
How to calculate incidence correctly
Incidence = qualified ÷ (qualified + screened out)
- Include over-quota respondents as qualified. They met the criteria; a full quota cell is a fieldwork decision, not a lower incidence.
- Exclude people who drop out during the screener. You don't know whether they would have qualified.
- Exclude quality terminations (speeders, failed attention checks) from incidence and report them separately.
Worked example: IT security decision-makers
A technology client wants IT decision-makers at companies with 250+ employees who are evaluating cloud security in the next year. Among general B2B panelists, 18% are IT decision-makers, 35% of those work at large companies, and 40% of those are evaluating cloud security.
- Incidence = 0.18 × 0.35 × 0.40 = 2.52%
- For 300 completes with 12% drop-out: about 13,530 people to screen
Starting from a panel profiled as ITDMs instead lifts incidence to 14%, cutting screening by more than 80%. Press Example to load it.
Incidence benchmarks
| Incidence | Typical audience |
|---|---|
| 50–100% | General population with light quotas |
| 20–50% | Category users of common products, parents, car owners |
| 5–20% | Recent purchasers of a specific category, B2B functional roles |
| 1–5% | Niche users, senior decision-makers in a sector, treated patients |
| Under 1% | Rare-disease patients, specific medical sub-specialties, C-suite in one industry |
These are broad guides for screening a general sample; profiled panels reduce the screening needed.
Frequently asked questions
What is a low incidence rate?
Most panel providers treat under 10% as low and under 5% as very low, with higher cost per complete.
Is incidence the same as response rate?
No. Response rate is the share of people invited who start the survey. Incidence is the share of those who start the screener and qualify.
Why is my actual incidence lower than estimated?
Usually because criteria overlap less than assumed, the panel profile differs from the population, or the screener wording is stricter than intended. Field a soft launch and recalculate.
Need the respondents, not just the numbers?
Global Vox Populi runs quantitative and qualitative fieldwork in 170+ countries through its own proprietary panels of consumers, B2B and IT decision-makers, physicians, nurses, patients, caregivers and payers. ISO 9001, ISO 20252 and ISO/IEC 27001 certified and HIPAA compliant, following ESOMAR and Insights Association guidelines.
Check feasibilityLink to this tool
Free to use in proposals, courses and articles. If it helped, a link back is appreciated:
<a href="https://globalvoxpopuli.com/tools/incidence-rate-calculator/">Incidence Rate Calculator</a> by Global Vox Populi