ISO

A list of the more than 550 participants and 85 countries that participated in the 2015 Global Measurement Uncertainty Survey. Thanks to all for providing a worldwide response!

 Global Measurement Uncertainty Survey 2015: The countries and participants

Edited by Sten Westgard, MS
November 2015

Given the size of the global laboratory marketplace, it would be extermely difficult to capture a truly significant sample size of all the labs everywhere. The survey, therefore, cannot be assumed to be perfectly representative of the state of measurement uncertainty. There are always significant limitation to any poll or survey. While this survey was sent out to the Westgard Newsletter (more than 23,000 laboratory professionals) and also through the LinkedIn website (more than 6,000 laboratory professionals), it could not reach all laboratories. Indeed, only lab professionals who expressed an interest in the Westgard website were able to be targeted.

Below, you can see the countries listed as well as the number of responses from each country. Some countries had outsized impact - a small country might have responded more than a large country.

Within the limitations of this survey, however, the comments and the findings are useful to point out that the idealized vision of measurement uncertainty, the mu that is preached from the metrology pulpit, is not what many labs actually experience. There is a disconnect between the rhetoric and the reality. The extent of how large that disconnect can be debated - and further surveys and studies can determine this with more accuracy - but there can be no denial anymore that measurement uncertainty is not the magic bullet it claims to be.