United States | Telling it how it isn’t

As response rates decline, the risk of polling errors rises

A growing problem for America’s pollsters

United States Census Bureau enumerator sits on a porch as he counts the members of a large family for the upcoming census, 1940 — Image: Getty Images

Jun 22nd 2023|Washington, DC

KNOWLEDGE of many facets of American life comes from surveys. Every ten years the Census Bureau asks adults to tally themselves and their demographic information in an online or mail-in form: a survey. The Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS) produces monthly estimates of the unemployment rate and other economic numbers that are derived from interviews with tens of thousands of households: another survey. And knowledge of political issues from opinion polls, of course, comes from surveys. That would not be a problem if everyone answered the pollsters. But not everyone does, and the people who don’t can be very different from those who do.

This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “Telling it how it isn’t”