The Doppler factor of the outflow from compact radio cores of active g
alactic nuclei (AGNs) can be estimated from single-epoch radio observa
tions by assuming that the particles and magnetic field are in equipar
tition, as suggested by Readhead. This estimate of the Doppler factor
is called the equipartition Doppler factor, delta(eq). To test whether
delta(eq) is a good estimator of the true Doppler factor, equipartiti
on Doppler factors are computed for a sample of 105 radio sources and
compared with the corresponding inverse Compton (self-Compton) Doppler
factors, delta(IC), computed for this same sample by Ghisellini and c
oworkers, by assuming the observed X-ray flux to be of inverse Compton
origin. The Ghisellini et al. sample consists of 33 BL Lacertae objec
ts, 24 core-dominated high-polarization quasars, 29 core-dominated low
-polarization quasars (including seven core-dominated quasars with no
polarization data), 11 lobe-dominated quasars, and eight radio galaxie
s. The relevant assumptions for the computation of both the equipartit
ion Doppler factor, delta(eq), and the inverse Compton Doppler factor,
delta(IC), are discussed. A high correlation is found between these t
wo estimates of the true Doppler factor, suggesting that they are both
reliable. In fact, it appears that delta(eq)/delta(IC) is on the orde
r of unity. This seems to indicate that the sources are near equiparti
tion, and thus confirms the possibility of using delta(eq) to estimate
the true Doppler factor of a source from single-epoch radio data. It
appears that the Doppler factors of radio galaxies and lobe-dominated
quasars are lower than those of the other categories of sources. This
may be related to orientation effects, and could therefore be used to
constrain orientation unified models. In any case, equipartition Doppl
er factors are likely to play a crucial role in our understanding of t
he physics at work in compact radio sources.