About the Political Typology
What is the political typology?
The political typology uses survey data to classify the American public into nine political groups based on responses to 30 questions about their political values and beliefs.
The goal of this long-standing project is to go beyond people’s partisan leanings or vote choices and provide a deeper understanding of the American political landscape. This is the ninth version of the political typology; the first was conducted nearly 40 years ago.
Where can I find the results of the political typology?
You can read about the main findings in our report “Beyond Red vs. Blue: The Political Typology.”
To explore the typology groups and data in more detail, refer to the detailed tables or the comparison tool.
How did you create the 2026 political typology groups?
The typology uses a statistical process called cluster analysis to identify groups of people whose responses are as similar as possible across 30 questions we selected to capture key values and beliefs about government, economics and culture. This technique surfaces similarities and differences in Americans’ values that are often hidden under broader partisan and ideological labels.
The questions used in the analysis are from a survey of 10,357 U.S. adults conducted Nov. 17-30, 2025, using Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel – a nationally representative panel of randomly selected U.S. adults.
For more on the cluster analysis process, the questions used, and how we look at data across multiple surveys, visit Appendix B.
How does the typology quiz work?
The quiz assigns people to a typology group based only on how close their answers are to the typical responses for each group. It does not consider how strongly someone may care about one issue over another. This means that someone assigned to a group will often have many things in common with others in the group while diverging from them in some ways. It also means that someone who cares very strongly about one or two issues may end up in a different group than people who share their views on those issues, especially if they have many things in common with people in another group.
Take the typology quiz to find out which political typology group you fit into.
Who is represented in the political typology?
All American adults ages 18 and older. The data comes from Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), a nationally representative panel of randomly selected U.S. adults. The ATP is carefully designed and weighted to reflect the opinions of adults living in the United States as accurately as possible.
Refer to Appendix A for more on how we conducted and designed the surveys.
Can I access the raw dataset myself?
Pew Research Center makes the case-level microdata for much of its research available to the public for secondary analysis after a period of time. The core datasets will be available here in late 2026. Contact us at info@pewresearch.org with any questions.
