4.6 What sample size do I need for my research?

 What sample size do I need for my research?

 Perhaps the most frequently asked question concerning the determination of sample size is    “What should be my sample size?” The article by Isreal (2013) provides you a summary of the most important points that one needs top consider to answer such a question.

In fact ,you need to consider a number of factors to determine the appropriate sample size. These include , the purpose of the study, population size, the level of precision, the level of confidence or risk, and the degree of variability in the attributes being measured. For full discussion of these issues, Read the article below  DETERMINING SAMPLE SIZE. It discusses all these factors and how to use published tables, and applying formulas to calculate a sample size.

Article: Determining the sample size 

More precision, more sample size

The table below provides sample sizes for different sizes of population at a 95% confidence level and margin of error ranging from 5% to 1%. Note that the smaller the margin of error ( which means when we need more precise measurement of the variable ) , we need to have more sample size. 

Table: sample sizes for different margin of errors