Understanding error bars in charts
Error bars illustrate the margin of error for a survey estimate by showing how precise that estimate is. Here are some answers to common questions that might help you better understand charts with error bars.
A behind-the-scenes blog about research methods at Pew Research Center.
For our latest findings, visit pewresearch.org.
Latest from Decoded
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Building our first video series, ‘Methods 101’
Our Methods 101 videos aim to make survey research accessible to a non-specialist audience. Here’s a behind-the-scenes look.
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Urban, suburban or rural? Americans’ perceptions of their own community type differ by party
Even when they live in similar areas, Democrats and Republicans differ over whether those areas are urban, suburban or rural.
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Testing survey questions ahead of time can help sharpen a poll’s focus
Testing questions in advance can help ensure they are as clear as possible — and that they measure what researchers set out to measure.
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How focus groups informed our study about nationalism and international engagement in the U.S. and UK
We convened 26 focus groups in the U.S. and UK and asked participants to share their views about local, national and international issues.
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Adapting how we ask about the gender of our survey respondents
Updating our question wording acknowledges changing norms around gender identity and improves data quality and accuracy.
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Small changes in survey scales can matter when measuring political ideology in Europe
In this analysis, we compare two different ways of asking telephone survey respondents in Europe about their ideology.
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Introducing Pew Research Center’s Python libraries
We’re excited to release a collection of Python tools that we’ve found ourselves returning to again and again.
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Communicating technical content
A common challenge facing researchers is how to make complex subject matter accessible to a general audience.
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The challenges of using real-time epidemiological data in a public health crisis
Three widely cited coronavirus trackers differ in their methods and in the kinds of information they provide.
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Analyzing international survey data with the pewmethods R package
Data from Pew Research Center’s annual Global Attitudes Survey is publicly available.
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