The American Trends Panel (ATP), created by Pew Research Center, is a nationally representative panel of randomly selected U.S. adults recruited from landline and cellphone random-digit-dial surveys. Panelists participate via monthly self-administered web surveys. Panelists who do not have internet access are provided with a tablet and wireless internet connection.
Most of the data in this report are drawn from the panel wave conducted Dec. 4 to 18, 2017, among 4,729 respondents. The margin of sampling error for the full sample of 4,729 respondents is plus or minus 2.3 percentage points. At the time this wave was conducted, the panel was managed by Abt Associates.
Members of the American Trends Panel were recruited from several large, national landline and cellphone random-digit-dial surveys conducted in English and Spanish. At the end of each survey, respondents were invited to join the panel. The first group of panelists was recruited from the 2014 Political Polarization and Typology Survey, conducted Jan. 23 to March 16, 2014. Of the 10,013 adults interviewed, 9,809 were invited to take part in the panel and a total of 5,338 agreed to participate.13 The second group of panelists was recruited from the 2015 Pew Research Center Survey on Government, conducted Aug. 27 to Oct. 4, 2015. Of the 6,004 adults interviewed, all were invited to join the panel, and 2,976 agreed to participate.14 The third group of panelists was recruited from a survey conducted April 25 to June 4, 2017. Of the 5,012 adults interviewed in the survey or pretest, 3,905 were invited to take part in the panel and a total of 1,628 agreed to participate.15
The ATP data were weighted in a multistep process that begins with a base weight incorporating the respondents’ original survey selection probability and the fact that in 2014 some panelists were subsampled for invitation to the panel. Next, an adjustment was made for the fact that the propensity to join the panel and remain an active panelist varied across different groups in the sample. The final step in the weighting uses an iterative technique that aligns the sample to population benchmarks on a number of dimensions. Gender, age, education, race, Hispanic origin and region parameters come from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2016 American Community Survey. The county-level population density parameter (deciles) comes from the 2010 U.S. decennial census. The telephone service benchmark comes from the July-December 2016 National Health Interview Survey and is projected to 2017. The volunteerism benchmark comes from the 2015 Current Population Survey Volunteer Supplement. The party affiliation benchmark is the average of the three most recent Pew Research Center general public telephone surveys. The internet access benchmark comes from the 2017 ATP Panel Refresh Survey. Respondents who did not previously have internet access are treated as not having internet access for weighting purposes. Sampling errors and statistical tests of significance take into account the effect of weighting. Interviews are conducted in both English and Spanish, but the Hispanic sample in the American Trends Panel is predominantly U.S. born and English speaking.
The following table shows the unweighted sample sizes and the error attributable to sampling that would be expected at the 95% level of confidence for the full sample and for the seven typology groups.
Sample sizes and sampling errors for other subgroups are available upon request.
The December 2017 wave had a response rate of 86% (4,729 responses among 5,510 individuals in the panel). Taking account of the combined, weighted response rate for the recruitment surveys (10%) and attrition from panel members who were removed at their request or for inactivity, the cumulative response rate for the wave is 2.4%.16
In addition, selected questions asked of respondents in other waves of the American Trends Panel were analyzed in this report. Methodology reports for those waves may be found by following the links below. Results from waves other than the Dec. 4 to 18 panel wave are clearly indicated as such whenever they are referenced in this report.
The methods report for the Aug. 8 to 21, 2017, wave can be found here. The following table shows the unweighted sample sizes and the error attributable to sampling that would be expected at the 95% level of confidence for the full sample and for the seven typology groups.
The methods report for the Sept. 14-28, 2017, wave can be found here. The following table shows the unweighted sample sizes and the error attributable to sampling that would be expected at the 95% level of confidence for the full sample and for the seven typology groups.
The methods report for the Jan. 29 to Feb. 13, 2018, wave can be found here. The following table shows the unweighted sample sizes and the error attributable to sampling that would be expected at the 95% level of confidence for the full sample and for the seven typology groups.
In addition to sampling error, one should bear in mind that question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of opinion polls.
© Pew Research Center, 2018
