The Understanding America Study (UAS) is a panel at the University of Southern California (USC) of approximately 15,000 individuals representing the entire United States. The study is an 'Internet Panel,' which means that respondents answer our surveys on a computer, tablet, or smart phone, wherever they are and whenever they wish to participate. The majority of the panel members have their own Internet access. The remaining panel members have been provided Internet access by USC through the provision of a tablet and/or an Internet subscription.

At this time the UAS only asks surveys of adults aged 18 and over. It is not possible to volunteer for joining the UAS. We randomly select people around the country using postal codes. Surveys are designed by research teams around the world; programmed and tested by our team at the Center for Economic and Social Research, translated into Spanish and then fielded.

Final datasets for finished surveys are posted on our site with sample weights. Datasets of surveys that are still in the field may change and preliminary weights are available by request.

You can access the UAS data pages through this link: UAS Datapages