Base-Size Suppression: The Chart That Refuses to Mislead You

The problem: percentages without a base

"67% of enterprise buyers prefer option B" sounds decisive — until you learn it was 2 of 3 people. Cross-tabs slice samples thin fast: a 400-person study cut by segment, then by tenure, quietly produces cells of five or six respondents, and a chart that renders them as confident-looking bars is misleading by construction.

What suppression actually does

In Gotopico, every percentage travels with a suppression envelope. When the base behind a figure falls below the reporting minimum, the analytics layer withholds the number instead of rendering it, and the chart says so in plain language:

• Values below the reporting minimum are suppressed, not styled smaller or asterisked into the footnotes.
• Low-base cells that clear the minimum are still flagged, so a reader knows to treat them as directional.
• Cross-tab cells carry their suppression reasons with them — exports included.

This is a guardrail, not a premium feature: base-size suppression runs on every plan, including Free.

Why "just show a warning" isn't enough

Warnings get cropped out of screenshots. A percentage that exists will be quoted; a percentage that is withheld cannot be. Suppression moves the honesty decision from the person pasting the chart into a deck to the system generating it.

What to do with a suppressed cell

A suppressed cell is information: it tells you the study wasn't powered for that cut. You can widen the segment, field more responses, or report the parent group instead. What you can't do — because the chart won't let you — is present noise as signal.