This interactive graphic summarizes the voting intentions of major religious groups, drawing on data from the latest survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press among respondents reached on landlines and cell phones. Users can toggle between results among registered voters (from Pew Research Center surveys conducted between August 2009 and October 2010) and likely voters (from Pew Research Center surveys conducted Aug. 25-Sept. 6, 2010, Oct. 13-18, 2010 and Oct. 27-30, 2010). Due to the unreliability of early likely voter measures, the Pew Research Center does not produce likely voter estimates earlier than September of an election year and treats the findings with some caution until the final pre-election survey just days before the election. Results are not reported for smaller religious groups, such as Jews, Muslims and Hindus, because the surveys do not include enough respondents from these groups to produce reliable estimates.

View a PDF of all data shown in the graphic.
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Survey Dates

The data points in the chart refer to Pew Research Center surveys conducted on the following dates:
           Oct. 27-30, 2010 (read full survey report)
           Oct. 13-18, 2010 (read full survey report)
           Aug. 25-Sept. 6, 2010 (read full survey report)
           July 21-Aug. 5, 2010 (read full survey report)
           June 16-20, 2010 (survey did not include religious service attendance question; read full survey report)
           March 11-21, 2010 (read full survey report)
           Feb. 3-9, 2010 (read full survey report)
           Jan. 6-10, 2010 (read full survey report)
           Oct. 28-Nov. 8, 2009 (read full survey report)
           Aug. 20-27, 2009 (read full survey report)

Question Wording

The data above reflect responses to the following questions.

ASK ALL:
If the elections for U.S. Congress were being held TODAY, would you vote for [RANDOMIZE: "the Republican Party's candidate" OR "the Democratic Party's candidate"] for Congress in your district?

ASK IF ANSWERED OTHER OR DON'T KNOW:
As of TODAY, do you LEAN more to [READ "the Republican Party's candidate" OR "the Democratic Party's Candidate" IN SAME ORDER AS PREVIOUS QUESTION; IF NECESSARY: "for U.S. Congress in your district"]?

Sample Size and Margin of Error

These tables provide details on the number of interviews conducted among each religious group shown in the graphic as well as a sense of the magnitude of the error attributable to sampling that would be expected at the 95% level of confidence for groups of varying size. In addition to sampling error, one should bear in mind that question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of opinion polls.

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