How many responses do I need before results are released?
You start to see partial results when 3 results have been submitted. But there are some variations on how you'll see these results.
Requesters get partial results before surveys close, with limits for privacy
At Salary Confidential, privacy isn’t a feature — it’s the foundation that makes the whole system work.
To protect every respondent and keep their data truly confidential, we release results in safe batches of three or more responses — never smaller.
This means we only publish interim results when a full new set of three responses has arrived, and we never leave fewer than three responses “outstanding” for the next release or for the survey close.
That rule creates two distinct scenarios depending on your survey size:
1. Small surveys (5 responses or fewer)
Every survey gets its first unlock at three responses — but for smaller surveys, this first unlock is a tiny peek.
You’ll see only a calculated mean and median across those first three responses, not the full dataset.
We know it can be tempting to want more detail right away — but small datasets are inherently fragile for privacy.
If we were to show all three individual results as soon as they came in, the remaining two responses would be easy to triangulate when the survey closes (Read: What does anti-triangulation mean and why does it matter)
That’s why small surveys get just this limited preview: it keeps contributors protected while still giving you a glimpse of early momentum.
2. Larger surveys (6 responses or more)
Larger surveys also release results in batches of three — every time another complete set of three comes in.
However, we never produce a partial batch smaller than three, even in large surveys.
If your total number of slots isn’t divisible by three, we skip the last “unsafe” release point so the final batch still contains at least three responses.
Example:
A 7-slot survey gets its first release at 3 responses (the first batch of three).
Normally, 6 would be the next release point — but that would leave just one remaining response for the final batch.
Because a final batch of one would compromise privacy, we skip that release.
You’ll see 3 results at the first unlock, and the remaining 4 only once the survey closes.
Why we do this
We know this can create a little delayed gratification for requesters — but that’s also why Salary Confidential exists.
The fact that results are held in escrow by a neutral third party is what helps respondents feel safe enough to share their real numbers in the first place.
By maintaining that trust, we improve both sides of the equation:
- Respondents feel genuinely protected.
- Requesters receive data that’s accurate, complete, and offered in good faith.
It’s a small wait in exchange for a much better outcome — authentic, high-quality data collected in a way that protects everyone involved.
The "safe batches of 3 release rule" for the geeks
The survey release logic is a decision rule based on modular arithmetic.
You can have a nerdy moment with it here
If you’d like to go deeper
These articles provide context into the technical approach we take to make the data more resistant to identification and de-anonymization: