Nonresponse is of concern for the quality of survey data, because it may introduce bias into the collected sample. To date, only few studies deal with nonresponse in skills or educational surveys. This paper aims at contributing to this field by identifying the main factors that influenced participation in the first wave of PIAAC Germany, a survey assessing skills of the adult population, conducted in 2011/2012. Using bi- and multivariate analyses, we found that age, citizenship, the level of education, the type of house the sampled persons live in, and municipality size were the main factors influencing response to PIAAC Germany. Our findings suggest that, for the effective reduction of nonresponse in skills or education studies, researchers should target persons with a low level of education, foreigners, those living in larger housing units, and big-city dwellers by using appropriate measures at the different stages of the survey process.

methods, data, analyses, Vol 8, No 2 (2014)