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The AmeriSpeak Advantage

AmeriSpeak is distinctive on three key indicators of survey quality:

Industry Leading Response Rate
Due to the rigor of its panel recruitment, AmeriSpeak surveys achieve the highest American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) response rate of any multi-client panel solution on the market.

Sample Representativeness
AmeriSpeak is representative of the entire U.S. population because it leverages the NORC National Frame, an area probability sample used for landmark studies like the General Social Survey.

Transparency in Research
AmeriSpeak provides complete documentation for each custom study in compliance with the AAPOR Transparency Initiative, including a quantitative measurement of sample representativeness and documenting AAPOR response rates, sample sizes, survey field period, and other information.

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AmeriSpeak Experts

Panel Design

How AmeriSpeak Households Are Sampled

AmeriSpeak is a probability-based panel, with households selected from a documented sample list (technically called a “sample frame”). Randomly selected households are sampled with a known, non-zero probability of selection from the an address-based sample, and then contacted by U.S. mail and by NORC telephone and field interviewers.

NORC’s National Frame is designed to provide at least 97 percent sample coverage of the U.S. population by supplementing the U.S. Postal Service Delivery Sequence File. To do this, NORC field staff surveyed select geographic areas and created a supplemental list of addresses for the National Frame. This in-person listing of households improves sample coverage from 92 percent (based on address-based sampling) to 97 percent (using the NORC National Frame). In the process, the AmeriSpeak Panel surveys are better able to be representative of the U.S. population by providing enhanced sample representation of hard-to-reach rural households.

How Households Are Recruited

During the AmeriSpeak recruitment process, NORC contacts sampled households in English and Spanish by U.S. mail, telephone, and through field interviewers conducting in-person recruitment. Selected households can join the panel by visiting the AmeriSpeak Panel member website or by calling the AmeriSpeak toll-free telephone number. NORC obtains informed consent from study participants during the registration process.

After providing informed consent, AmeriSpeak panel members first complete an introduction survey asking questions about the person’s background, household composition and characteristics, and interests. Afterward, the AmeriSpeak panelist may be invited to participate in surveys and other kinds of research regarding a wide variety of topics. AmeriSpeak Panel members typically participate in AmeriSpeak web-based or phone-based studies two to three times a month.

AmeriSpeak Panel Recruitment: Improving Data Quality

As a result of AmeriSpeak Panel sampling and recruitment processes, data quality is improved in the following and other ways:

  • Use of the NORC National Frame increases sample representativeness by enhancing sample coverage for rural and in particular low-income households.
  • Use of NORC’s field staff for in-person recruitment enhances sample representativeness for young adults, lower socio-economic households, non-internet, and other households that are typically hard-to-reach for statistical surveys of the population.
  • The sampling and recruitment process results in an industry-leading panel recruitment response rate.

Read the AmeriSpeak Panel Technical Overview.

ESOMAR 37

Founded in 1947, ESOMAR is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting and supporting the interests of the global market, opinion and social research and data analytics industry. ESOMAR has grown to over 6,000 individual members and 550 corporate members located in over 130 countries, representing an underlying population of over 40,000 data, research, insights and analytics professionals. Among its various efforts and innovations promoting the industry and facilitating research-driven decision-making, ESOMAR provides a standard set of 37 questions helping prospective research clients determine whether a research provider’s questions and offerings fit their needs.

Download AmeriSpeak’s answers to ESOMAR 37.

Time-Sharing Experiments for the Social Sciences (TESS)

Led by principal investigators James Druckman of Northwestern University and Jeremy Freese of Stanford University, this program offers academic researchers the ability to design and field experiments using the AmeriSpeak Panel with grant funding provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF). TESS reviews applications on a rolling basis and selects the most innovative and salient experiment ideas for implementation. The TESS team, the successful applicants and the AmeriSpeak team collaborate to field the studies. Following a one-year embargo during which the study PI has unique access to the study results, TESS makes the results available to the public via its website, creating a rich database of experimental data from which future research can benefit. Since 2016, NORC’s AmeriSpeak team has fielded over 60 TESS studies, and another 150+ are planned over the next several years. TESS recently received renewed funding from the National Science Foundation, with NORC’s AmeriSpeak again the survey platform selected by the TESS principal investigators. The renewed funding is for three years (2021 to 2024).

Research & Development Survey (RANDS)

These series of surveys conducted by the Division of Research and Methodology at the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) use recruited, probability-sampled, commercial survey panels, including AmeriSpeak. The surveys are designed to explore the feasibility of using these panels to collect information on national health outcomes and to augment NCHS’ question evaluation and research program with quantitative methodologies for measuring error.

Research involving RANDS has included methods to detect measurement error and to calibrate survey estimates. Several topics have been included on the RANDS questionnaires, including access to healthcare and utilization, chronic conditions, food security, general health, health insurance, opioid use, physical activity, psychological distress, and smoking.