Understanding public opinion has never been more vital—or challenging.

Policymakers, government leaders, and the public need timely and reliable polling information to make decisions on social, political, scientific, and economic issues. For many years, traditional print and broadcast outlets met that need by conducting sophisticated polling on their own. But as they struggled to survive in a new digital era, many news outlets have closed their polling units to cut costs, leaving the public with less of a sense of what their fellow citizens think about the issues of the day. 

NORC and The AP produce rigorous, journalism-ready surveys on emerging issues.

Since 2015, The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research (AP-NORC) has produced monthly polls on hundreds of current events, as well as larger trends that have reflected the mood of America.

NORC gathers data for the polls through its probability-based AmeriSpeak® Panel, a breakthrough survey approach that achieves an industry-leading response rate and includes difficult-to-reach demographic groups, such as rural and low-income households.

Twice a month, NORC queries 1,000 respondents drawn from the panel on a pre-selected topic and then delivers the tabulated results and analysis to AP monthly. AP turns that data into compelling stories that are picked up, republished, or elaborated on by scores of other major news outlets. The results are also posted on the AP-NORC webpage.