Tracking the Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on American Households

Since March 10, 2020, we have been tracking effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on respondents to the nationally representative Understanding America Study (UAS). After an initial survey that covered March 10-31, 2020, we launched tracking surveys every two weeks. Every day, about 500 respondents are invited to take the survey for a total of about 7,000 respondents over a two-week period. Results are shared in a variety of ways. About 3,000 graphs are updated every night, with the corresponding tab-delimited text files available for download. The underlying micro-data are available for registered researchers after the end of each four-week field period. The paper describes the set-up of the tracking survey, lists the main topics covered and highlights a number or early results. Our ambition is to keep tracking the experiences of U.S. households for as along as the pandemic lasts.