The Pew Research Center (also simply known as Pew) is a nonpartisan American think tank based in Washington, D.C. It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the world.[1] It also conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, random sample survey research, and panel based surveys,[2] media content analysis, and other empirical social science research.
The Pew Research Center states it does not take policy stances. It is a subsidiary of the Pew Charitable Trusts[3] and a charter member of the American Association of Public Opinion Research's Transparency Initiative.[4]
In 1990, the Times Mirror Company founded the Times Mirror Center for the People & the Press as a research project, tasked with conducting polls on politics and policy.[5] Andrew Kohut became its director in 1993, and the Pew Charitable Trusts became its primary sponsor in 1996, when it was renamed the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.[6] The research center was named after the trust, which in turn is named after its founders, the Pew family.[7]
In 2004, the trust established the Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C. In 2013, Kohut stepped down as president and became founding director, Alan Murray became the second president.[8] In October 2014, Michael Dimock, a 14-year veteran of the center at the time of his selection, was named president.[9]
Although, the Pew Research Center claims to be unbiased for accuracy on topics they research, in 2016 the Pew Research Center came under scrutiny by former Pew Research stuff members that claimed that 30 percent of international surveys conducted by Pew Research Center contained skewed fabricated data, compared to just five percent for surveys within the United States of America.
The Pew Research Center is a nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization and a subsidiary of the Pew Charitable Trusts, its primary funder.[10] For its studies focusing on demographics of religions in the world, the Pew Research Center has been jointly funded by the Templeton Foundation.[11][12]
The center's research includes the following topic areas:[13]