Online Surveys

Our director of journalism studies explains how we determined what media outlets Americans turn to and trust for their political news.

While survey research in the United States is a year-round undertaking, the public’s focus on polling is never more intense than during the run-up to a presidential election.

when designing an online survey questionnaire, there is more than one way to ask a respondent to select which options in a series applies to them.

Nick Bertoni, manager of the American Trends Panel, explains how the panel works and what its recent expansion means for our future survey work.

Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP) is now the Center’s principal source of data for U.S. public opinion research.

What does the migration to online polling mean for the country's trove of public opinion data gathered over the past four decades?

Pew Research Center conducts surveys over the phone and, increasingly, online. But these two formats don’t always produce identical results.

Many online surveys are conducted using “nonprobability” or “opt-in” samples, which are generally easier and cheaper to conduct. In our latest Methods 101 video, we explore some of the features of nonprobability surveys and how they differ from traditional probability-based polls.

Our latest Methods 101 video explores some of the ways these surveys differ from traditional probability-based polls.

Question 1: Measuring religious identity How does Pew Research Center measure the religious identity of survey respondents and the religious composition of the U.S.? Answer: Generally, we rely on respondents’ self-identification.  A key question we ask in many surveys is: “What is your present religion, if any? Are you Protestant, Roman Catholic, Mormon, Orthodox such […]