The AP-NORC Monthly Poll
Problem
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.
Solution
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.
Result
The AP-NORC Monthly Poll offers a new, more robust approach to public opinion journalism.
AP-NORC Monthly Polls have covered a wide range of topics that comprise the American experience, from the impacts of COVID-19 to the ways people celebrate their holidays. As a result, The AP-NORC Center reaches citizens, policymakers, business leaders, and elected officials—including the halls of Congress—with the timely, independent, issue-based data and analysis that people need to make sense of these challenging times.
Learn More About the Poll
Reports and data from the polling series can be found at apnorc.org:
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Project Leads
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Jennifer Benz
Vice PresidentProject Director -
Marjorie Connelly
Senior FellowSenior Staff -
Trevor Tompson
Senior Vice PresidentSenior Staff
“By leveraging the AmeriSpeak Panel, our turnaround time is incredibly fast. We get the data on Tuesday and the AP-NORC Center has journalism out on Wednesday. We are not only able to cover the news of the day but also the trending public sentiment on big-picture issues, such as the public’s faith in democracy, racial and ethnic injustice, and issues with policing.”
