Pew Research Center

OVERVIEW

The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that conducts extensive public opinion polling, demographic research, and social science studies. It provides data-driven insights on a wide range of issues, including politics, technology, religion, and global trends. Known for its rigorous methodology and objective analysis, the Center serves as a trusted resource for understanding public attitudes and social developments. Its research helps inform discussions on critical issues shaping society today.

*The description above is a paraphrased version of the description on PEW Research Center website

Available Data File Formats

Excel, Stata, & R files

Accessibility

This is an open data source for public use

How to retrieve data by example;

Scenario

Assume you want to obtain the datasets of religious composition among the world’s migrants from 1990 to 2020, focusing on the religious breakdown of immigrants to and emigrants from specific countries. Statistical tools like Stata or R will help explore how migration has reshaped global religious landscapes over time.

Step-by-step

1. Visit the PEW Research Center via: https://www.pewresearch.org/topic/international-affairs/

2. Move the mouse pointer to the top right corner, and click on “TOOLS & RESOURCES” in red. Afterwards, click on “Datasets” in yellow. 

3. To download the datasets, you either login or create a free account as identified by the green marking.

4.  For new users and existing users, this is how the interface would appear for you respectively.

New User Interface

Existing User Interface

5.  This is how the new interface would appear after creating or logging into your PEW account.

6.  Click on “TOOLS & RESOURCES” in red. Afterwards, click on “Datasets” in green.

7.  This is how the Datasets interface would appear. Afterwards, click on the topic marked in brown.

8.  Afterwards, this is how the dataset for the said topic would appear. To download the dataset, click on the “Download Dataset” button in red.

9. This is how the downloaded dataset would appear in a zip file. The two folders contain the Excel, R, and Stata files. 

10. To extract the folders to any location on your computer, click on “Extract To” in red to display a pop-up menu. Afterwards, you can select “Desktop” in green as the destination place for your folders.

Be sure to consult with the source website on how to correctly cite your data. For this scenario, the citation in APA would look something like this;

PEW Research Center. (2024). Dataset: Religious composition of the world’s migrants, 1990 – 2020 https://www.pewresearch.org/dataset/dataset-religious-composition-of-the-worlds-migrants-1990-2020/