# Rounding of percentages on polls is inaccurate

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/rounding-of-percentages-on-polls-is-inaccurate/50376>\
**Category:** Feature\
**Tags:** polls\
**Created:** [20. September 2016 um 06:20 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/rounding-of-percentages-on-polls-is-inaccurate/50376 "2016-09-20T06:20:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 3

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**Author:** ![Mittineague](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/mittineague/32/114259_2.png) [@Mittineague](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Mittineague)\
**Post date:** [20. September 2016 um 18:51 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/rounding-of-percentages-on-polls-is-inaccurate/50376/3 "2016-09-20T18:51:22Z")

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I don’t consider the problem to be one of accuracy, but one of _precision_.

In my experience, the polls that I have seen are more for getting a “rough idea” than being a way to gather any scientifically significant data that would require more precision.  
But I can understand how others might want to use the poll feature to get more serious data.

I see two approaches.

- remove the numbers entirely and display only the visual graphing
- show percentage as a float instead of an integer

The first, by nut displaying a numerical percent value, would make it obvious that the results are not always precise.

The second would require changes to the code.  
And although it could provide more information, I’m not sure that most of those that use the poll feature require that level of precision nor am I sure members would not see the additional digits as “visual noise”.

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