This report draws on three surveys and a series of focus groups conducted by Pew Research Center between 2021 and 2023. These include a nationally representative survey of Asian American adults, two nationally representative surveys of U.S. adults, and a qualitative study of Asian Americans. Brief descriptions of and links to the methodologies for these studies are included below.
Survey of Asian adults, 2022-23: Asian Americans’ views on affirmative action and factors in college admissions
A nationally representative survey of 7,006 self-identified Asian adults conducted online and by mail from July 5, 2022, to Jan. 27, 2023, for Pew Research Center by Westat. The survey was offered in six languages: Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), English, Hindi, Korean, Tagalog and Vietnamese. Asian respondents included those who identified as more than one race or as Hispanic. The sampling design of the survey was an address-based sampling (ABS) approach, supplemented by list samples, to reach a nationally representative group of respondents. After accounting for the complex sample design and loss of precision due to weighting, the margin of sampling error for these respondents is plus or minus 2.1 percentage points at the 95% level of confidence. Here is the methodology used for the survey of Asian Americans.
Survey of U.S. adults, 2022: U.S. adults’ views on affirmative action and factors in college admissions
The second survey was conducted online among 5,132 U.S. adults from Dec. 5 to 11, 2022, using the Center’s American Trends Panel. In this survey, the Asian sample is made up of 367 English-speaking Asian adults who reported being one race and were not Hispanic. This survey provided questions on knowledge and attitude toward affirmative action and views of factors in college admissions, identical to the questions in the 2022-2023 survey of Asian Americans. To learn more, read the detailed methodology of the American Trends Panel (ATP) and data from this study.
Survey of U.S. adults, 2023: U.S. adults’ views of efforts to increase racial and ethnic diversity
The third survey was conducted online among 5,079 U.S. adults from March 27 to April 2, 2023, also using the Center’s American Trends Panel. The survey interviewed 368 English-speaking Asian adults who reported being one race and were not Hispanic. Survey respondents were asked questions on attitudes toward efforts to increase racial and ethnic diversity in colleges and universities and the workplace. To learn more, read the detailed methodology of the American Trends Panel and data from this study.
Focus groups, 2021: Asian Americans’ views on affirmative action
The Center also conducted 66 pre-survey online focus groups with Asian Americans from Aug. 4 to Oct. 14, 2021. The focus groups were designed to study the diverse experiences and perspectives of Asians living in the U.S. on a variety of topics including affirmative action. The focus groups had 264 recruited participants from 18 Asian origin groups. Discussions were conducted in 18 languages and moderated by members of an Asian origin group. Read the methodology of the 66 online focus groups of Asian Americans for more details.
