The telephone survey of 1,575 adults across Greater Toronto was conducted by Goldfarb Consultants between Feb. 12 and March 14.

It polled about 150 people from eight major ethnic groups, including the Italian and Portuguese communities and six visible minority groups: Caribbean and African blacks, Chinese, Hispanics, south Asians, Filipinos and west Asian/Arabs. For comparison purposes, a random sample of 402 Torontonians was also surveyed.

The poll was commissioned for The Star's Beyond 2000 project, a year-long study of Greater Toronto's growing ethnic and cultural mix and an exploration of many quality-of-life issues that will affect the lives of all its residents in the next millennium.

Results from the total sample are considered accurate within 2 percentage points, 19 times in 20. The margin of error is higher about 8 percentage points for individual community results. The series can be seen on-line at http://www.thestar.com [1].