Telephone numbers were chosen by a random computer process by KPC Research, the market research arm of Knight Publishing Co., in Charlotte. The poll was sponsored by the School of Journalism and the Institute for Research in Social Science at UNC.
Some 598 adult residents of North Carolina agreed to be interviewed by telephone. Sampling error is 4 percentage points. In other words, in 100 samples of this size, 95 would yield results varying by no more than 4 percent from what would have been obtained if every telephone in the state had been dialed.
The question that was posed: "Would you say that you are very happy, pretty happy or not too happy?"
Overall results: 31 percent said they were very happy; 55 percent said they were pretty happy; 14 percent said they were not too happy. The results are similar to current national surveys.
Some additional breakdowns:
Of residents of North Carolina who make at least $30,000 each year, 39 percent are very happy; 25 percent of those who make less than $30,000 are very happy.
Of college graduates and persons with less than an eighth grade education, 34 percent said they are very happy; 21 percent of high school dropouts and 28 percent of
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the respondents with some college education said they were very happy. Dr. Arne L. Kalleberg, professor of sociology at UNC, was asked what might account for the differences based on education. She said that persons who dropped out of high school and persons with some college who did not finish might have expected good jobs that did not materialize. Conversely, persons with less than an eighth grade education did not expect great jobs or a lot of money, thus making for a happier group.
More breakdowns:
Of married respondents, 34 percent said they are very happy; 26 percent of those who are separated or not married said they are very happy.
Of those respondents under age 25, 33 percent said they are very happy; 27 percent of those over age 60 said they are very happy.
Of blacks who responded, 25 percent said they are not too happy; 11 percent of whites said they are not too happy. Of Republicans, 38 percent said they are very happy; 35 percent of Independents said they are very happy; 27 percent of Democrats said they are very happy.
Of nonfrequent readers of newspapers, 21 percent said they are not too happy; 11 percent of frequent newspaper readers said they are not too happy.
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Exercise 12.7
(24.0K)
2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education