Is opinion polling broken?

This surprising claim was spotted circulating on social media: ‘The United States has surpassed China and North Korea in deaths from malnutrition’. The claim used analysis from the Global Burden of Disease database for their sums. The data does indeed show that the US records mor ...  Show more

Tim Harford investigates some of the numbers in the news. This week:(00:31) Claims have circulated on the internet that Europe sees a particularly high number of deaths from heat waves, especially when compared to the US. Can we really compare the statistics, and is air condition ...  Show more

Pollsters are starting to panic. There’s headline after headline after headline ahead of the midterms on whether this election cycle’s polling is accurate or not. How does polling actually work? Is it really representative of how voters are feeling and what the outcome will be on ...  Show more

American voters still say the economy is their most important electoral issue, and a growing number are less than pleased with Joe Biden’s economic management. The FT’s deputy Washington bureau chief, Lauren Fedor, and the vice-president of North Star Opinion Research, Jon McH ...

The presidential opposition candidate Joe Biden has barely emerged from his home since America’s lockdown at the end of March. But polls suggest that the low-key strategy is working in his favour – as his rival President Donald Trump comes under increasing pressure over his handl ...  Show more

In the last few days of Australia’s federal election campaign we’ve seen the polls tighten and Labor’s lead shrink. Guardian Australia political editor Katharine Murphy and the executive director of Essential, Peter Lewis, unpack the Guardian Essential poll. As undecided voters s ...  Show more