Survey Reports

As states around the country debate laws regarding access to the ballot – ranging from automatic voter registration to voter ID requirements – most Americans back making it easy for all citizens to vote. But they overwhelmingly reject the idea of requiring people to vote.

Two years after the Supreme Court decision that required states to recognize same-sex marriages nationwide, support for allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally is at its highest point in over 20 years of Pew Research Center polling on the issue.

Both political parties’ favorability ratings are more negative than positive and fewer than half say either party has high ethical standards.

Survey Report Those who study politics have long known that a person’s party affiliation is a strong predictor of how they will vote and what their opinions will be on most political issues. Some of the power of partisanship comes from its relative immutability: Most people remain loyal to a political party. But over a […]

Changes in the dynamics of power in Washington have registered with members of both political parties.

Survey Report As Congress faces an April 28 deadline to fund government operations, the public is now split in their general preferences on the size and scope of government: 48% say they would rather have a bigger government providing more services, while 45% prefer a smaller government providing fewer services. This marks the first time […]

While the party retains its advantage over the Democrats on handling terrorism, it has lost ground on immigration and foreign policy, and 68% of the public sees the Republican Party as “mostly divided.”

A majority of Americans now view the federal tax system as unfair, including similar shares of Republicans and Democrats. But partisans differ in their concerns about the tax system.

Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents are about three times as likely as Republicans and Republican leaners to say the U.S. has a responsibility to accept refugees from Syria.

Large majorities of the public, Republicans and Democrats alike, say open and fair elections and a system of governmental checks and balances are essential to maintaining a strong democracy in the United States.

Survey Report As President Trump prepares for his address next week to a joint session of Congress, Republicans say they are more inclined to trust the president, rather than GOP congressional leaders, if the two sides disagree. For their part, Democrats are far more concerned that congressional Democrats will not do enough,  rather than go […]

Less than a month after Donald Trump took office, the public’s initial impressions of the new president are strongly felt, deeply polarized and far more negative than positive. The latest national survey by Pew Research Center, conducted Feb. 7-12 among 1,503 adults, finds that Trump’s overall job approval is much lower than those of prior […]

Survey Report As Donald Trump enters the White House, the nation’s leading policy priorities are little changed from the final years of Barack Obama’s presidency. And the partisan divisions over many of the public’s priorities – from dealing with global climate change to strengthening the nation’s military – remain as wide as ever. Roughly three-quarters […]

As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office, the public has starkly different expectations about which groups in society will gain influence – and those that will lose influence – under his administration.

Survey Report When he takes office next week, President-elect Donald Trump will inherit an array of global threats in the view of the public. About eight-in-ten Americans (79%) say ISIS poses a major threat to the well-being of the United States, and 71% say the same about cyberattacks from other countries. Nearly two-thirds (64%) view […]

The public continues to give the president-elect low marks for how he is handling the transition process.

Three-quarters of Americans say Sept. 11 was one of the 10 events in their lives that had the greatest impact on the country, with many also citing Obama's election and the tech revolution.

Survey Report With just a few weeks left in Barack Obama’s presidency, Americans’ early judgments of his place in history are more positive than negative. Obama is poised to leave office on a high note: Current assessments of both the president and the first lady are among the most favorable since they arrived in the […]

Nearly a month after Donald Trump’s election as president, the public views his transition to the White House less positively than those of past presidents-elect.