The 2025 National Public Opinion Reference Survey (NPORS), conducted February 5 – June 18, 2025, by Pew Research Center (n = 5,022). An address-based sample (ABS) drawn from the USPS Computerized Delivery Sequence File, with respondents completing the survey online, by paper, or by telephone in English or Spanish. All 65 columns from the public release file are retained.
Format
A data frame with 5,022 rows and 65 variables. The 11 smuse_*
variables form a battery asking about social media platform use and share a
"question_preface" attribute. All other variables are documented
individually below:
- respid
Case ID. Unique respondent identifier.
- stratum
Sampling stratum (10 levels, defined by census block group demographics).
- basewt
Base weight — inverse probability of selection, with adaptive mode adjustment.
- weight
Final weight —
basewtafter raking to Census population targets. Use for all population-level estimates.- mode
Data collection mode:
1= Online,2= Paper,3= Phone.- language
Language interview completed in:
1= English,2= Spanish.- languageinitial
Language interview started in.
- interview_start
Interview start timestamp.
- interview_end
Interview end timestamp.
- econ1mod
Economic conditions in your community today (Excellent / Good / Fair / Poor).
- econ1bmod
Economic conditions one year from now (Better / Worse / Same).
- comtype2
Community type: Urban / Suburban / Rural.
- unity
Americans united vs. divided on values.
- crimesafe
Area safety in terms of crime (Extremely safe – Not at all safe).
- govprotct
Government's role in protecting people from themselves.
- moregunimpact
Impact of more gun ownership on crime.
- fin_sit
Household financial situation (Comfortable – Can't meet basics).
- vet1
Military service in household.
- vol12_cps
Volunteered for any organization in past 12 months.
- eminuse
Uses internet or email at least occasionally.
- intmob
Accesses internet on a mobile device.
- intfreq
Internet use frequency (6 categories).
- intfreq_collapsed
Internet use frequency (4 categories, derived).
- home4nw2
Subscribes to home internet service.
- bbhome
Home internet type (dial-up, broadband, etc.).
- smuse_fb
Facebook. Part of social media use battery (see Details).
- smuse_yt
YouTube. Part of social media use battery (see Details).
- smuse_x
X (formerly Twitter). Part of social media use battery.
- smuse_ig
Instagram. Part of social media use battery.
- smuse_sc
Snapchat. Part of social media use battery.
- smuse_wa
WhatsApp. Part of social media use battery.
- smuse_tt
TikTok. Part of social media use battery.
- smuse_rd
Reddit. Part of social media use battery.
- smuse_bsk
Bluesky. Part of social media use battery.
- smuse_th
Threads. Part of social media use battery.
- smuse_ts
Truth Social. Part of social media use battery.
- radio
Listens to radio.
- device1a
Has a cell phone.
- smart2
Cell phone is a smartphone.
- nhisll
Has a working landline telephone at home.
- relig
Current religion (12 categories).
- religcat1
Religion (4 categories: Protestant, Catholic, Unaffiliated, Other).
- born
Born-again or evangelical Christian.
- attendper
In-person religious service attendance (6 categories).
- attendonline2
Online/TV religious service participation (6 categories).
- relimp
Importance of religion in life (Very – Not at all).
- pray
Prayer frequency outside of services (7 categories).
- educcat
Education level (categorical).
- hisp
Hispanic origin.
- racecmb
Race (5 categories).
- racethn
Race-ethnicity (5 categories including Asian non-Hispanic).
- agegrp
Age in 13 five-year groups.
- agecat
Age (4 categories: 18-29, 30-49, 50-64, 65+).
- birthplace
U.S. born vs. foreign born.
- gender
Gender (man / woman / other).
- adults
Number of adults in household.
- inc_sdt1
Total family income (8 categories from < $30,000 to $150,000+).
- cregion
Census region (NE / MW / S / W).
- metro
Metropolitan area indicator.
- registration
Registered to vote at current address.
- party
Party affiliation (Rep / Dem / Ind / Other).
- partyln
Party lean for Independents (Rep / Dem).
- partysum
Party summary (Rep+Lean Rep / Dem+Lean Dem / No lean).
- voted2024
Voted in the 2024 presidential election.
- votegen_post
2024 presidential vote choice (Trump / Harris / Other).
Source
Pew Research Center. 2025 National Public Opinion Reference Survey.
https://www.pewresearch.org/datasets/ (free account required to
download raw data; the processed .rda is included in the package).
Prepared by data-raw/prepare-pew-npors-2025.R.
Details
Survey design: Stratified address-based sample with raking post-stratification — use Taylor series linearization. NPORS has no PSU (each address is its own unit, effectively a stratified SRS):
svy <- as_survey(pew_npors_2025,
strata = stratum,
weights = weight
)Use basewt instead of weight for sensitivity analyses comparing
pre- and post-raking estimates.
Social media battery: All 11 smuse_* variables share the question
stem "Please indicate whether or not you ever use the following websites or apps." Values: 1 = Selected, 2 = Not selected, 99 = Refused.
Each variable additionally carries a "question_preface" attribute with
this shared stem.
Metadata:
All columns carry variable labels and value labels as R attributes from the
original SPSS file. The 11 smuse_* battery variables additionally carry
a "question_preface" attribute with the shared question stem. All three
attribute types are automatically extracted into surveycore's metadata
system when you call as_survey().
Variable labels (
"label"attribute): A human-readable description of each column — forsmuse_*variables this is just the platform name (e.g.,"Facebook"). Example:attr(pew_npors_2025$smuse_fb, "label")returns"Facebook".Value labels (
"labels"attribute): A named numeric vector mapping each code to its meaning. Example:attr(pew_npors_2025$smuse_fb, "labels")returnsc(Selected = 1, "Not selected" = 2, Refused = 99).Question preface (
"question_preface"attribute): The shared question stem for battery items, set on allsmuse_*columns. Example:attr(pew_npors_2025$smuse_fb, "question_preface")returns"Please indicate whether or not you ever use the following websites or apps.".
Examples
# Variables in the dataset
names(pew_npors_2025)
#> [1] "respid" "mode" "language"
#> [4] "languageinitial" "stratum" "interview_start"
#> [7] "interview_end" "econ1mod" "econ1bmod"
#> [10] "comtype2" "unity" "crimesafe"
#> [13] "govprotct" "moregunimpact" "fin_sit"
#> [16] "vet1" "vol12_cps" "eminuse"
#> [19] "intmob" "intfreq" "intfreq_collapsed"
#> [22] "home4nw2" "bbhome" "smuse_fb"
#> [25] "smuse_yt" "smuse_x" "smuse_ig"
#> [28] "smuse_sc" "smuse_wa" "smuse_tt"
#> [31] "smuse_rd" "smuse_bsk" "smuse_th"
#> [34] "smuse_ts" "radio" "device1a"
#> [37] "smart2" "nhisll" "relig"
#> [40] "religcat1" "born" "attendper"
#> [43] "attendonline2" "relimp" "pray"
#> [46] "educcat" "registration" "party"
#> [49] "partyln" "partysum" "hisp"
#> [52] "racecmb" "racethn" "agegrp"
#> [55] "agecat" "birthplace" "gender"
#> [58] "adults" "voted2024" "votegen_post"
#> [61] "inc_sdt1" "cregion" "metro"
#> [64] "basewt" "weight"
# Create survey design (no PSU for ABS design)
# svy <- as_survey(pew_npors_2025, strata = stratum, weights = weight)
# Inspect variable label
attr(pew_npors_2025$smuse_fb, "label")
#> [1] "Facebook"
# Inspect value labels
attr(pew_npors_2025$smuse_fb, "labels")
#> Selected Not selected Refused
#> 1 2 99
# Inspect question preface (shared stem for all smuse_* battery items)
attr(pew_npors_2025$smuse_fb, "question_preface")
#> [1] "Please indicate whether or not you ever use the following websites or apps."