Survey Methods

Since the establishment of the ATP, the Center has gradually migrated away from telephone polling and toward online survey administration, and since early 2019, the Center has conducted most of its U.S. polling on the ATP. This shift has major implications for the way the Center measures trends in American religion – including those from the Center’s flagship Religious Landscape Studies, which were conducted by phone in 2007 and 2014.

Eight-in-ten Americans say they don’t generally answer their cellphone when an unknown number calls, our survey found.

As news outlets morph and multiply, both surveys and passive data collection tools face challenges.

Many who follow polls are asking how these errors could happen. Here, we’ll take a preliminary shot at answering that question.

Data tables from interviews we conducted with verified voters after the 2016 and 2018 elections may help answer some election 2020 questions.

Polls can't predict the future. But they are the best tool to reveal the public’s priorities and values, and why people vote the way they do.

Our analysis of verified voters examines what 2016 voters and nonvoters did in the 2018 midterm elections and offers a detailed portrait of the demographic composition and vote choices of the 2018 electorate.

If a battleground state poll does not adjust for having too many college graduates, it is at risk of overstating support for a Democratic presidential candidate. The Current Population Survey provides high-quality data that can mitigate overrepresentation of college graduates.

The real environment in which polls are conducted bears little resemblance to the idealized settings presented in textbooks.

The rise of internet polling makes it more feasible to publish estimates for Asian Americans. But these estimates offer a limited view.