Telephone Surveys

A new telephone survey experiment finds that an opinion poll drawn from a commercial voter file produces results similar to those from a sample based on random-digit dialing.

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 […]

People in 38 countries were asked how often they use the internet – as well as how often they use social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and other sites – to get news. Specifically, they were asked whether they did each activity several times a day, once a day, several times a week, once a […]

Establishing the interviewer’s perceived race or ethnicity is essential to understanding how it might affect the respondent’s answers to survey questions.

People polled by telephone are slightly less likely than those interviewed online to say their personal finances are in “poor shape."

A new analysis sheds light on concerns raised among pollsters that the medium by which a survey question is asked – its mode – can affect responses.

Telephone polls still provide accurate data on a wide range of social, demographic and political variables, but some weaknesses persist.

The first video in Pew Research Center’s Methods 101 series helps explain random sampling – a concept that lies at the heart of all probability-based survey research – and why it’s important.

An experiment comparing responses to 27 questions fielded on both a telephone and a web survey found no significant mode differences in overall opinion about Trump or many of his signature policy positions.