Joe wants to find the most common source of news among U.S. adults. He wants his sample to have 10,000 adults (half male and half female individuals) to make a valid generalization. How many people from each of the 50 states should he choose randomly to avoid bias in his study??

1 answer

To avoid bias in the study, Joe should choose a random sample of individuals from each state proportional to the state's population size.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the total U.S. population in 2020 was approximately 331 million. Dividing this number by 50 states gives an average population size of roughly 6.6 million people per state.

Assuming each state's population is evenly distributed between males and females, Joe should randomly choose 100 individuals from each state (50 males and 50 females) to reach his desired sample size of 10,000 adults.

Therefore, to avoid bias in his study, Joe should choose 100 individuals (50 males and 50 females) from each of the 50 states.