When surveying small populations, some approaches are more inclusive than others
Modern survey tools offer several ways to survey small populations, and in this explainer, we discuss the strengths and weaknesses of prominent approaches.
Methods
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How Public Polling Has Changed in the 21st Century
A new study found that 61% of national pollsters used different methods in 2022 than in 2016. And last year, 17% of pollsters used multiple methods to sample or interview people – up from 2% in 2016.
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Does public opinion polling about issues still work?
National polls like the Center’s come within a few percentage points, on average, of benchmarks from high response rate federal surveys.
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How to access Pew Research Center survey data
Pew Research Center makes most of its datasets available for download once reporting has been completed for a given study. Here’s how to find and access our data.
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Want to better understand how surveys work? We’ve got an email course for you
If you’ve wondered what opinion polls are for, how they are done or how to tell a good one from a bad one, sign up for our email mini-course.
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Polls on COVID-19 vaccination closely align with CDC data
Public polling estimates on COVID-19 vaccination have been within about 2.8 points, on average, of the CDC’s calculated rate.
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How Pew Research Center has dealt with the challenges of international polling during the pandemic
Since the initial disruptions of field operations due to COVID-19, we have been able to conduct 33 surveys in 17 countries and territories.
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How Call-In Options Affect Address-Based Web Surveys
One method to improve survey representation of the non-internet and less literate population is to allow people to take surveys offline. In March, we fielded a study to test the feasibility and effect of collecting data through respondent-initiated interactive voice response; here’s what we found.
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Q&A: A conversation about U.S. election polling problems in 2020
Here, we discuss the findings of a comprehensive report about the polling errors of 2020 and their implications for polling.
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Behind Biden’s 2020 Victory
A new analysis of 2020 validated voters examines change and continuity in the electorate, both of which contributed to Joe Biden’s victory. It looks at how new voters and voters who turned out in either 2016, 2018 or both voted in the 2020 presidential election, and offers a detailed portrait of the demographic composition of the 2020 electorate.
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