Title: Can polls be trusted? Yes, if designed well | Pew Research Center
Headings: Can we still trust polls?
Can we still trust polls?
Content: The polls, in other words, were corroborated by real-world events. There are also a number of high-quality, government-funded surveys that provide us with quite accurate benchmark estimates for a range of characteristics of the U.S. population. Pollsters can ask the same questions these government surveys do to see how their results compare. In the case of Pew Research Center polls, our trends track very closely with those of high-quality benchmark polls on questions like religious identity and political affiliation. This gives us additional confidence that the trends we’re recording are accurate. So, yes, we can still trust polls. But it’s important to be realistic about the precision they can provide. Want to learn more about polling? Check out our Methods 101 videos: How can a survey of 1,000 people tell you what the whole U.S. thinks?