Public Opinion American Government

Public Opinion Public Opinion aims to understand the distribution of the population's beliefs about politics and policy issues. Demography is the science of human populations and helps us to understand human behavior and attitudes

Demography The census is one of the main tools that is used in demography. Immigration has had a major impact on the demographics that exist within the United States With the explosion of the Hispanic population in recent years, Hispanics are now the new minority majority. This means that other than non-Hispanic white citizens, Hispanics have the largest population in the U.S. Currently in the United States the population breakdown is: Hispanic 16% African American 13% Asian American 5% Native American 1% White 66%

Polling Polling is a way of sampling and understanding the opinions of the American people A sample is a relatively small proportion of people who are chosen to represent the whole Random Sampling: A random sample is a sample which operates on the principle that everyone should have an equal probability of being selected as part of the sample. Your chance of being asked to be part of a sample are theoretically the same as everyone else.

Error Sampling error: The more people interviewed within a poll the more confident we can be in the results. A sample of about 1,000-1,500 is considered to be an accurate representation of U.S. voters. Most polling today is accomplished through random-digit dialing. This is done by randomly calling all possible phone numbers. Disadvantages to random-digit dialing are that 2% of the American population don't own phones and most people are far less willing to participate in phone polls as compared to face to face polls.

Exit Exit polls are some of the most widely criticized polls. These polls take place at randomly selected polling places around the country and random voters are asked how they voted.