MEXICO : Progress and Promise : How the Poll Was Conducted

The Times Poll conducted face-to-face interviews with 1,546 adult Mexicans, in their homes, from Sept. 11 through Oct. 2. The survey was conducted at 189 locations within 61 municipios (equivalent to counties) across the country. The sample was chosen from a list of all municipios , proportionate to population size, which ensured that respondents in all types of communities in all regions of the country had an opportunity to be selected. Within each municipio , locations were chosen randomly through a procedure which also provided variation by socioeconomic status. At the household level, respondents were initially selected at random, but controls were established to ensure proper distribution by sex, age and labor force. The survey was supervised by Belden & Russonello Inc., a Washington, D.C.- based research firm specializing in surveys of Latin America. Field work and consultation were provided by the Mexican polling concern of Prospectiva Estragica, A.C. The margin of sampling error for percentages based on the entire sample is plus or minus 3 percentage points. For certain subgroups, the error margin may be somewhat higher. Analysis of trends in Mexican opinion comes from a similar Times Poll of Mexicans conducted in August, 1989.