Interpret the Data, or What the Numbers Mean
Total - Number of adults age 18+ in the US/Simmons Total Population.
Sample -- the actual number of respondents to the Simmons survey who meet the specifications of both the Row and the Column.
000's -- a projection statistically derived from the actual number of survey respondents and which represents the number of adults in the U.S. population who meet the specifications of both the Row and the Column. When reading, add three zeros (000) to the end of the number.
Vert% -- Vertical % or Percent Down. The percentage of people who have a given characteristic as defined by the Column heading.
Horz% -- Horizontal % or Percent Across. The percentage of people who have a given characteristic as defined by the Row heading.
Index -- Indicates the likelihood, compared to the total population, of meeting the specifications of both Column and Row. The base number for comparison is 100. Over 100 is more likely, under 100 less likely, to meet the specification.
Base -- Percentage of the currently selected base/filter that the cell represents.
BEWARE! -- A single asterisk "*" in your crosstab result means the projections are relatively unstable and should be used with caution. Two asterisks "**" means the projections are from thirty or fewer interviews. These results are not sufficiently reliable to be safely used alone.
Simmons Insights provides users with in depth reports that utilize a crosstab. When you are analyzing Simmons Insights data, the column would have the product or brand you are interested in and the rows would contain demographic characteristics, media habits or psychographic variables.
Sample – Refers to the number of respondents who participated in the survey and also meet the requirements stated in the column and the row. In this sample, 392 of the respondents were 25 to 34 years of age and were more likely to visit Five Guys.
Weighted – This figure, which is expressed in thousands, is a projection of the number of adults in the United States who meet the criteria for the row and the column. It takes the sample from the Simmons Insights report and uses that data to calculate an estimate which represents the entire population of adults in the United States. In the example above, it is projected that 6,534,000 people in the U.S. were in the 25 to 34 age range and tend to visit Five Guys most often.
Vertical – This is the percent of respondents who first meet the column criterion and then meet the row criterion. Of those individuals who are more likely to visit Five Guys, 25.5% were also 25 to 34 years old.
Horizontal – Refers to the percent of respondents who first meet the criterion for the row and then meet the criterion for the column. Of the individuals who fell within the 25 to 34 age range, 15.2% tend to visit Five Guys most often.
Index – The index measures the likelihood that respondents meet the criteria for the column and the row compared to the U.S. population. The base number of the index for comparison purposes is 100. In this example the index was 146 which means that respondents 25-34 years old were 46% more likely to visit Five Guys than the U.S. adult population overall. This index showed a high level of interest in visiting Five Guys for respondents who were between 25 and 34 years of age.
The index is one of the most important pieces of information found in the Simmons Insights report. When reading Simmons Insights data, the index represents the U.S. adult population. If the index is 130, this means that survey respondents have a 30 percent greater interest in using a product or brand compared to the rest of the population. An index of 75 indicates that the likelihood of using a product or brand is 25% less than the average. If the index is close to 100, it shows that usage is not much different than the rest of the population.