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. It also conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, random sample survey research, and panel based surveys, 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 and a charter member of the American Association of Public Opinion Research's Transparency Initiative.
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History
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. 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. The research center was named after the trust, which in turn is named after its founders, the Pew family.
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. In October 2014, Michael Dimock, a 14-year veteran of the center at the time of his selection, was named president.
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.
Staff
On January 21st, 2026 staff won their union elections. In the prior November management had declined to voluntarily recognize the union. It is affiliated with the Nonprofit Professional Employees Union (NPEU), a local of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers.
Funding
The Pew Research Center is a nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization and a subsidiary of the Pew Charitable Trusts, its primary funder. For its studies focusing on demographics of religions in the world, the Pew Research Center has been jointly funded by the Templeton Foundation.
Research topics
The center's research includes the following topic areas:
U.S. politics and policy positions
International affairs
Immigration & migration
Race and ethnicity
Religion
Age & generations
Gender & LGBTQ rights and views
Family & relationships
Economy & work
Science
Internet and technology
News habits & media
Methodological research
Regions & countries
Other such information