What Low Response Rates Mean for Telephone Surveys
Telephone polls still provide accurate data on a wide range of social, demographic and political variables, but some weaknesses persist.
Methods 101: Random Sampling
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.
How can a survey of 1,000 people tell you what the whole U.S. thinks?
The first video in our "Methods 101" series is about random sampling, a concept that undergirds all probability-based survey research. Here's how it works.
Q&A: Political polls and the 2016 election
Courtney Kennedy of Pew Research Center, who chaired survey researchers organization AAPOR's task force on political polling in the 2016 U.S. elections, discuss the group's findings and recommendations.
Q&A: Using Google search data to study public interest in the Flint water crisis
Read an interview with Director of Journalism Research Amy Mitchell, who helped author the study.
Seeking better data on Hispanics, Census Bureau may change how it asks about race
Federal officials are considering major changes in how they ask Americans about their race and ethnicity.
Are Telephone Polls Understating Support for Trump?
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.
Q&A with Solomon Messing of Pew Research Center’s Data Labs
A conversation with the director of the Center's Data Labs team on their new report on congressional communications and the uses and misuses of "big data."
A basic question when reading a poll: Does it include or exclude nonvoters?
Opinion polls in the U.S. can address the same topic yet reach very different results. There are several reasons this can happen, but we tackle one of the most basic: Did the poll include or exclude the 45% who didn’t vote in November?
Q&A: How Pew Research Center surveyed nearly 8,000 police officers
Read an interview with Senior Editor Rich Morin and Senior Research Methodologist Andrew Mercer, who were involved in our groundbreaking police officer survey.
