New Mexicans` perceptions of Los Alamos National Laboratory: Awareness and evaluations

This report uses survey data to profile New Mexico residents`perceptions of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The survey results are the responses of a representative, randomly selected sample of New Mexico households to a set of questions asked in September and October 1990. The data allow statistical inference to the general population`s responses to the same set of questions at the time the survey was administered. The results provide an overview of New Mexico residents` current perceptions of LANL. The sample margin of error is slightly less than plus or minus five percent. Because our sample frame is designed to be proportionate to population, counties with the smallest populations, such as Mora and Los Alamos, tend to have very few respondents in a standard sample. In order to have sample sizes sufficiently large to discern statistically significant differences across these counties, we took additional, non-proportionate random samples from Los Alamos County and its neighboring counties, including Rio Arriba, Taos, San Miguel, Mora and Sandoval Counties. This required the specification of new sample frames for each of the six counties and an additional sample of 300 respondents (50 in each county). Therefore, the analysis for this report is somewhat more complex than usual in that two separate samples will be analyzed, the state-wide random sample and the oversample