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THE PROSPECT of a high response rate generally has been considered a decisive argument in favor of face-to-face interviews, over mailed questionnaires. A review of methodology textbook summaries of the literature on survey response rates reveals, however, a variety of estimates of the typical response likely from these two traditional forms of data collection. Many texts caution against expecting mailed questionnaire response from a general population to exceed about 30 percent (Labovitz and Hagedorn, Abstract Traditionally, as reflected in methodology textbook reviews of the survey nonresponse literature, interviews have been thought to achieve substantially higher response rates than mailed questionnaires. The paper describes a correlational design for assessing the typical response difference between these two forms of data collection, after controls for other factors known to affect survey response. Attention is given to change over time in the response difference between interviews and questionnaires. In the primary data set, the net response due to data collection amounts to some 7.5 percentage points, in the middle (30-70) range of survey response. The analysis quantifies the decline over time in interview response, and shows mailed questionnaires to be free from decline. A second data set reproduces the essential findings.John Goyder is Associate Professor,