Painting Industry Benchmark methodology

Every figure on the Painting Industry Benchmark says what it rests on. These are the rules that decide whether a figure shows at all. Method version 1.

Nothing shows from a small group

• A figure is published only when at least 10 painters have answered, or at least 5 separate businesses' measured jobs stand behind it.
• No single contributor can make up more than 20% of a figure.
• A crew-size figure is held back too if subtracting it from its country figure would reveal a group smaller than that.

The median, never the average

• Each painter counts once per question across the last 12 months, and once per kind of answer (a vote, a range, an exact number). A later answer replaces an earlier one of the same kind.
• Figures are the median and the middle half of answers around it.
• An answer far from the rest (a robust z-score above 3.5) is held back until 2 other painters answer within 10% of it.
• Figures use answers from the last 12 months, and money is only compared within one country.

Your answers stay private

The raw answers are never shared or sold. Only the published figures leave Surfacely, and they are free to quote with credit to the Painting Industry Benchmark by Surfacely.

Painting Industry Benchmark · Surfacely