Survey Methods

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.

While the notion that polls should include equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats makes some sense, it’s based on a misunderstanding of what polling is intended to do.

How many U.S. adults use the internet? There are a lot of sources with answers to this question. Yet these different sources can be tricky to reconcile.

Polling in different parts of the world can be very challenging, because what works in one country may not work in a different country.

The Center conducts polls in many countries other than the U.S. – but the methodology behind our international surveys can vary.

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.

With global survey research, it's important to understand what people are thinking about the subject we're studying. Focus groups help address this.

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.

Response rates to telephone public opinion polls conducted by Pew Research Center have resumed their decline, to 7% in 2017 and 6% in 2018.