The Pew Research Center gathers data through several methods, including public opinion polling, online surveys and empirical research. The center also analyzes the methodology of polling and examines related issues, such as public confidence in poll results.
Staffed by veteran pollsters and social scientists, the center is a polling and research group that provides data on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world.
Data collected and shared by the center help journalists, pollsters, academic researchers and the public learn more about the reliability of polling in the United States.
The center has covered many topics related to polling methology including: the trustworthiness of polls about presidential candidate Barack Obama; the views of cell phone-only users on issues, compared to those of land-line users; the reliability of polling in the 2006 mid-term elections; and the controversy over exit polling.
The Pew Research Center does not take positions on policy debates. It is a nonpartisan subsidiary of Pew based in Washington, D.C. For more information about its research into polling methodology, visit the Pew Research Center Web site.
Jul 09, 2009 - The mobile nature of wireless phones creates a significant problem for geographic sampling. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that the wireless-only are more geographically mobile than those with landline phones.
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Jun 25, 2009 - Despite such challenges as a growing wireless-only population, possible racially-related response bias and greater-than-usual difficulties in forecasting turnout, polllsters' methods were evidently adequate to the task.
Jun 24, 2009 - How the question is phrased has a clear impact on whether the public rates deficit reduction or stimulus spending more important.
Dec 18, 2008 - The latest study of Pew Research Center election surveys analyzes the effects of conducting both landline and cell phone interviews. While the addition of cell phones had at most a modest effect on estimates of candidate support in individual surveys, when looked at in the aggregate clear patterns emerge.
Sep 23, 2008 - As in two preceding tests, a new survey shows that including cell phone interviews results in slightly more support for Obama and slightly less for McCain.
May 22, 2008 - The Pew Research Center has been studying the challenge to survey research posed by the growing number of wireless-only households. Scott Keeter, the center's director of survey research, provides a summary of its latest findings.
Apr 21, 2008 - Survey research firms face increasingly high non-completion rates. Analysis based on extra efforts to reach non-responders finds few differences between the responses of the easy- and hard-to-reach.
Jan 31, 2008 - Study finds that on key political measures such as presidential approval, Iraq policy, presidential primary voter preference and party affiliation, respondents reached on cell phones hold attitudes very similar to those reached on landline telephones.
May 01, 2007 - In December, The Philadelphia Inquirer listed some of the “most quoted and more reliable” survey groups, which included the Pew Research Center.
Oct 01, 2004 - A new subsidiary — the Pew Research Center — is one change following Pew's governing transformation. The components of this organization, however, are well known.
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