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INTERNET RESOURCES
Guide to public opinion poll Web sites: Polling data from around the world
C&RL News, October 2006
Vol. 67, No. 9
by Gary Thompson and Sean Conley
Since their beginnings in the 1930s with Gallup, Roper, Harris and others, scientific polling organizations have grown dramatically in number, scope, and stature to their worldwide presence today. This compilation focuses on significant Internet sites concerning general public opinion polls, especially those providing polling results in usable formats. Like other professions dealing with public affairs, pollsters have found the Internet to be a great boon both for advertising services and for offering survey results. Professional organizations, university research centers, and data archives all use the Web to enhance access to public opinion polls. Access to polls from other countries and multinational surveys has expanded greatly in the last few years as scientific polling becomes commonplace in more nations. Commercial polling organizations and publishers are putting electronic journals and searchable databases on the Web, with some information for free and some only available to registrants/subscribers. The compilers decided to exclude Internet sites that focus heavily on market research; consumer surveys; pollsters whose primary focus is political campaigns and elections; census and other governmental sites as well as historical treatments; and sites oriented towards polling methodology and training. We decided not to cover Web and blog polls, as many are unscientific, biased, or oriented toward amateur efforts.
Basics
• A Media Guide to Survey Research (World Association for Public Opinion Research). This site provides an excellent introduction to public opinion research that informs journalists and consumers how to tell whether a poll is scientific or unscientific, biased or objective, valid or invalid and what other key points to consider in evaluating polls. Contains links to other Web resources. Access: http://www.unl.edu/WAPOR/journalists.doc.
• Polling 101 (The Roper Center for Public Opinion). Polling 101 describes the basic principles of polling and sampling in a question-and-answer format. Access: http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/pom/polling101.html.
Major U.S. media polls
• ABC News Polling Unit (2005–present). Access: http://abcnews.go.com/US/PollVault/.
• The Associated Press/IPSOS Poll (2003–present). Access: http://www.ap-ipsosresults.com/.
• CBS News Polls (Current year). Access: http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/opinion/polls/main500160.shtml.
• Fox News Polls (2005–present). Access: http://www.foxnews.com/polls/.
• The L.A. Times Polls (1996–present). Access: http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/timespoll/.
• The New York Times Polls (2002–present). Access: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/us/polls_index.html.
• The NPR/Kaiser/Kennedy School Polls (1999–present). Access: http://www.npr.org/programs/specials/poll/.
• Time Magazine/SRBI Polls (2004-present). Access: http://www.srbi.com/timepoll_archive.html.
• The Wall Street Journal/NBC News Poll (subscription required). Access: http://interactive.wsj.com/edition/resources/documents/pollhome.htm.
• The Washington Post Polls (1997–present). Access: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/polls/vault/vault.htm.
Major U.S. commercial and nonprofit polling organization sites
• Gallup Brain (subscription required). This site provides access to more than 70 years of Gallup polling data, while the analysis articles go back to 1997. Users can search by basic keyword or an advanced search with limits by date and data type, or browse by decade, topics, and trends. While a subscription to Gallup’s On-Demand service is required to access detailed data through this site or Gallup’s main site (poll.gallup.com), there is limited free access to recently published analysis articles and selected recent questionnaires. Access: http://brain.gallup.com/.
• Harris Interactive. This site provides access to the well-known Harris polls on its homepage back to 1998. Users can search the site by keyword or date. Results are mostly presented in the form of news releases, analysis articles, and individual questions with responses. Access: http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/.
• Kaiser Family Foundation. Run by the Henry J. Kaiser Foundation, this Web site provides free access to questions with responses in PDF format to surveys about health and health-care issues back to 1994. Access: http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/.
• National Opinion Research Center (NORC). Since 1941 NORC has been conducting specialized surveys on local, national, and international public opinion. Current major research areas are economics and population; education and child development; health survey, program, and policy research; substance abuse, mental health, and criminal justice; and statistics and methodology. NORC has conducted the General Social Survey since 1972. Depending upon the study, users can view questionnaires, datasets, frequencies, or analyses. Access: http://www.norc.uchicago.edu.
• Pew Research Center. This Web site acts as a gateway for the other “project” Web sites being conducted by Pew Research, such as the Pew Study of People and the Press (surveys back to 1987) and Stateline. Tabs at the top of the page may be used to access different kinds of reports and analyses. Access: http://pewresearch.org/.
• Public Agenda. Started by Daniel Yankelovich and Cyrus Vance in 1975, Public Agenda’s mission is to make citizens aware of policy issues from a nonpartisan perspective and to understand the public point of view. Use the “Issue Guides” to find facts, view differing opinions, look at common misperceptions, and locate lists of key pollsters for the issues. Click on “Research Studies” for other data. Free registration is required for some data. Access: http://www.publicagenda.org.
• Survey Research Center (University of Michigan). For more than 50 years, the Survey Research Center has been a leader in the collection or analysis of data from scientific sample surveys. Among its current projects are: 1) the Survey of Consumer Attitudes; 2) the Panel Study of Income Dynamics; 3) the Monitoring the Future study of high school youth; 4) the Health and Retirement Study; 5) the Retirement Research Center; 6) the National Survey of Family Growth; and 7) the Youth, Education, and Society program. Tables, charts, and reports are included. Registration is required for some data. Access: http://www.isr.umich.edu/src/projects.html.
• Zogby. An international polling firm established in 1984, Zogby provides current news releases and articles from third-party sources that feature data from Zogby polls, and “Trends over Time” providing users with time-series data relating to current topics in the media. Registered users are allowed to view survey results. Access: http://www.zogby.com.
Polling data archives/searchable databases
• American Religion Data Archive. Founded in 1997, the targeted audience and the data collection both now include American and international surveys and results. You can view questionnaires and also search for questions by keyword and then click on “analyze results” to view responses. Access: http://www.thearda.com.
• Canadian Opinion Research Archive. This archive makes available Canadian commercial and independent surveys dating from 1973 forward. Recent and popular surveys are searchable by date, broad topic, and province. Full access to archives requires registration. Access: http://www.queensu.ca/cora/.
• Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) (subscription required). Established in 1962, ICPSR maintains a vast archive of social science data for research and instruction. The majority of the data in the ICPSR archive are downloadable only by individuals at ICPSR’s 500 member institutions. The remaining data are made available through the “Special Topic Archives,” many of which are federally funded (including General Social Survey). Data-PASS funded from the Library of Congress provides access to opinion polls, voting records, and large-scale surveys. Access: http://www.icpsr.umich.edu.
• LAPOP-Latin American Public Opinion Project. Since the 1970s, Mitchell Seligson (University of Pittsburgh, now Vanderbilt) has operated LAPOP to survey the citizens of Latin America on democratic values and their behaviors related to democracy. PDF reports from the survey archives representing results from Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela, as well as for Madagascar, Israel and Albania, are available on the Web site. Datasets are available from center for an administrative charge. Access: http://sitemason.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/HOME.
• Polling the Nation (subscription required). This large polling database covers 14,000 surveys from 1986 to 2006 from many of the major pollsters. The search interface allows full-text keyword searching, in addition to a pull-down menu of topics or geographic locations. Users can also browse or limit searches by polling sources. Results are presented in a useful grid format, showing date, polling organization, and question. Clicking on the question will reveal the results. Access: http://poll.orspub.com/.
• Public Opinion Poll Question Database. Produced by the Odum Institute for Research in Social Science at the University of North Carolina, coverage includes Harris, Southern Poll, state polls, the Knight Foundation Community Polls from before 1970 to present, depending upon the topic. Searchable by keyword to obtain survey question text. Results for specific questions available by “displaying all question information.” Access: http://www.irss.unc.edu/data_archive/pollsearch.html.
• Questionbank; Social Surveys and Research Questionnaires Online. Searchable by survey name, topic, or keyword in questions used in surveys. Limited to United Kingdom for surveys conducted from 1991 to present. No datasets. Refers you to the UK Data Archive. Access: http://qb.soc.surrey.ac.uk.
• The Roper Center’s poll (subscription required). The Roper Center has collected a large variety of polling data from many of the commercial, international, and media polling organizations throughout the world. iPOLL provides one-stop shopping for
question-level access to a database that spans 70 years and nearly a half million questions, searchable by basic keywords with limits, or browsing by organization or topic. Each record gives survey methodology, question, and responses by percentile. Those without a subscription have free access to the “Public Opinion Matters” section, providing analysis on current topics or access through Lexis-Nexis if your library subscribes to that service. Access: http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/ipoll.html.
• UK Data Archive–Major Studies. A listing of major surveys of British and European public opinion conducted by governmental agencies and social organizations, the United Kingdom Data Archive (UKDA) is a curator of the largest collection of digital data in the social sciences and humanities in the United Kingdom. Access: http://www.data-archive.ac.uk/findingData/majorstudies.asp.
• World Public Opinion.org (WPO). The Program on International Policy Attitudes launched WorldPublicOpinion.org in January 2006 to provide a source of in-depth information and analysis on public opinion from around the world on international issues. Covers national, cross-national, and international surveys. Summary reports of survey results. Also includes Americans & the World, a source on U.S. public opinion on international issues and The Digest, which provides analyses of polling on various international topics. Access: http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/btdevelopmentaidra/135.php?nid=&id=&pnt=135&lb=brusc.
Multinational and foreign polls
 • Afrobarometer–Africa Public Opinion Research Home Page. Founded in 1993, this nonpartisan research project conducts regular surveys of African opinions from more than a dozen nations on a wide range of topics. Surveys, survey results, briefing papers, and working papers are available online. Access: http://www.afrobarometer.org.
• Asiabarometer. For English version, hit “cancel” when it asks if you want to install language pack. Results available from the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research. Coverage: 2003–2005. Access: http://avatoli.ioc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~asiabarometer/pages/english/index.html.
• B. I. And Lucille Cohen Institute for Public Opinion Research (Tel Aviv University). This site offers independent public opinion surveys in cooperation with the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Department of Statistics. Results in Hebrew only. Access: http://www.bicohen.tau.ac.il/manage.asp?PageID=31&Lang=2.
• European Public Opinion Analysis. Sponsored by the European Commission since 1973, this site provides current and past summaries and full reports from the Eurobarometer general and topical survey series as well as links to other European polls. Access: http://europa.eu.int/comm/public_opinion/.
• European Social Survey (ESS). ESS, starting in 2002 and now in its third round, covers more than 20 nations. You must register to access datasets. Access: http://naticent02.uuhost.uk.uu.net/index.htm.
• FOM: Public Opinion Foundation (Russia). Established in 1992, this center now provides a weekly edition (Dominants) highlighting selected Russian polls as well as a database where one can locate and view responses to questions. Access: http://english.fom.ru.
• Iranian Student Polling Agency (ISPA). Affiliated with the Iranian Academic Center for Education, Culture and Research, ISPA has conducted surveys on cultural, economic, social, and political topics since 2001. Access: http://www.ispa.ir/en/default.aspx.
• Japanese Data Archive. JPOLL contains more than 10,000 public opinion questions and the respective responses from Japan’s major survey research sources. Users can search for public opinion questions using keywords, topics, dates, and organizations as search criteria. Coverage: 1980–1998. Free registration required. Access: http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/jpoll/home.html.
• Latin American Databank (LAD). The Latin American Databank at the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research archives public opinion surveys for Latin America. Established in 1969, LAD holds nearly 1,000 studies from 16 countries, with the largest contributions coming from Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela. Data only available to Roper Express customers. Access: http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/lad.html.
• Latinobarometro. Latinobarómetro is an annual survey of public opinion in 18 countries in Latin America produced by Latinobarómetro Corporation, a nonprofit organization based in Santiago Chile. Coverage: 1995-2004. To analyze the results online requires password for payment, but PDF summaries of the survey results are available under the “Press” pull down. Access: http://latinobarometro.org/index.php?id=150.
 • Mansfield Asian Opinion Poll Database. This site offers opinion polls on key policy-related issues from major media organizations and other agencies in Japan and South Korea. These polls were previously not available in English. Coverage: 2004–2006. Access: http://mansfieldfdn.org/polls/index.htm.
• Palestinian Center for Public Opinion. Founded in 1994, this center has made available some 150 polls conducted in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza on political, economical, social, educational, and health issues. Access: http://www.pcpo.ps/polls.htm.
• World Values Survey. This Web site provides access to tables and graphs showing national or comparative survey results for selected countries to the four waves of the World Values Survey conducted from 1981 to 2004. Access: http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/services/main.html.
State and regional polls (United States)
• Mason-Dixon News Media Polls. Access: http://www.mason-dixon.com/.
• Southern Focus Poll. Access: http://www2.irss.unc.edu/irss/researchdesignservices/southernFocus.asp.
• Arkansas: Arkansas Poll (University of Arkansas). Access: http://plsc.uark.edu/arkpoll/.
• Arizona: Grand Canyon State Poll (Northern Arizona University).
Access: http://www4.nau.edu/srl/.
• Arizona: Cronkite-Eight Poll (Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication). Access: http://www.kaet.asu.edu/horizon/poll/.
• California: The Field (California) Poll. Access: http://field.com/fieldpoll/.
• California: Public Policy Institute of California. Access: http://www.ppic.org/main/home.asp.
• Connecticut: Quinnipiac University. Access: http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x11359.xml.
• Florida: FIU/Florida Poll (Florida International University). Access: http://www.fiu.edu/orgs/ipor/.
• Florida: Quinnipiac University. Access: http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x12941.xml.
• Georgia: The Georgia Poll (University of Georgia). Access: http://www.src.uga.edu/surveys/GA-Poll/index.html.
• Louisiana: Louisiana Population Data Center (Louisiana State University). Access: http://lapop.lsu.edu/.
• Maryland: Maryland Media Survey (Gonzales Research and Marketing Strategies).
Access: http://www.garesearch.com/Poll-directory.htm.
• Michigan: Institute for Public Policy and Social Research (Michigan State University). Access: http://www.ippsr.msu.edu/.
• New Hampshire: The Granite State Poll (University of New Hampshire). Access: http://www.unh.edu/survey-center/press.html.
• New Jersey: The Eagleton Poll (Rutgers University).
• New Jersey: Quinnipiac University. Access: http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x11375.xml.
• New Mexico: Institute for Public Policy (University of New Mexico). Access: http://www.unm.edu/%7Einstpp/e_link/archive.htm.
• New York: Marist Poll (Marist College). Access: http://www.maristpoll.marist.edu/default.htm.
• New York: Quinnipiac University. Access: http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x11372.xml.
• New York: Empire State Poll (Cornell University). Access: http://sri.cornell.edu/.
• New York: Siena Research Institute (Siena College). Access: http://www.siena.edu/sri/.
• Ohio: The Ohio Poll (University of Cincinnati). Access: http://www.ipr.uc.edu/Services/OhioPoll.cfm.
• Oregon: Oregon Survey Research Laboratory (University of Oregon). Access: http://osrl.uoregon.edu/archive/.
• Pennsylvania: The Keystone Poll (Franklin and Marshall College Center for Opinion Research). Access: http://www.fandm.edu/x2217.xml.
• Pennsylvania: Quinnipiac University. Access: http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x11378.xml.
• Rhode Island: Brown University State Survey (Brown University). Access: http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Taubman_Center/polls.html.
• Texas: Survey Research Institute (University of Houston). Access: http://www.uh.edu/cpp/polling.htm.
• Vermont: Center for Rural Studies (University of Vermont). Access: http://crs.uvm.edu/.
• Virginia: Quality of Life in Virginia (Virginia Tech).
Access: http://www.csr.vt.edu/qol/index.html.
• Wisconsin: The Badger Poll (University of Wisconsin Survey Center). Access: http://www.uwsc.wisc.edu/bpoll.htm.
Major professional organizations
• American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR). A professional organization for individuals interested in public opinion and survey research, AAPOR sponsors conferences and awards, maintains directories, professional standards and reviews, and facilitates information sharing. Access: http://www.aapor.org.
• National Council on Public Polls (NCPP). An association of U.S. polling organizations established in 1969, NCPP’s mission is “to set the highest professional standards for public opinion pollsters, and to advance the understanding . . . of how polls are conducted and how to interpret poll results” through seminars, workshops, and reporting. Access: http://www.ncpp.org.
• National Network of State Polls (NNSP). Started in 1980, NNSP is a confederation of organizations that conducts state-level surveys, with 50 members from 38 states. The Survey Research Center at the University of Kentucky serves as NNSP headquarters. NNSP’s survey archives are located at University of North Carolina’s Odum Institute. Access: http://survey.rgs.uky.edu/nnsp/.
• European Society for Opinion and Market Research. This is an association of individual members interested in promoting a code of practice and professional standards for opinion and market researchers through membership services, conferences, workshops, and publications. Access: http://www.esomar.org.
• World Association for Public Opinion Research. Founded in 1947 by a group of experts and scholars interested in improving public opinion research all over the world, this organization seeks to promote the freedom to conduct and publish public opinion surveys, to disseminate the polling methodologies, and to encourage exchange among public opinion researchers throughout the world. The association sponsors the International Journal of Public Opinion Research. Access: http://www.unl.edu/WAPOR.
Online journals
• Polling Report.com (subscription required). This online journal draws together current survey data from most of the major poll entities and presents data in a graphical format. Subscribers have access to specialized state-by-state data. Access: http://www.pollingreport.com/.
• Palestinian Opinion Pulse (POP). Published by the Jerusalem Media and Communication Center, POP surveys Palestinians, including those in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, for their opinions on issues relating to Arab life in the Middle East. Access: http://www.jmcc.org/publicpoll/opinion.html.
• Public Perspective Online. This online version of the now-defunct print journal, Public Perspective, published by the Roper Center until 2003, provides full-text access to the journal’s content. Issues from 1989 through 2003 are presented in PDF. There are also some basic searching by author, year, and keyword in title. Access: http://roperweb.ropercenter.uconn.edu/cgi-bin/hsrun.exe/Roperweb/PP_Index/PP_Index.htx;start=HS_verify.
• Public Opinion Pros: An Online Magazine for Polling Professional (and Everyone Else). (Subscription required–sample issue free). Founded by Lisa Ferrero Parmelee, the last editor of Public Perspectives, this journal provides a forum for articles about the polling process. Access: http://www.publicopinionpros.com/.
Blogs/electronic lists
• The Gallup Poll Editors’ Blog. This blog is written by Editor-in-Chief Frank Newport and the other editors at Gallup in order to comment and provide analysis on recent polls. Blog entries are available chronologically back to June 2004. Access: http://poll.gallup.com/BLOG/.
• Mystery Pollster. This blog, written by Mark Blumenthal, a Democratic pollster, is intended to demystify “the science and art of political polling.” Blumenthal does an excellent job of explaining poll results and methodology. He provides links to many other polling resources and to other blogs. Access: http://www.mysterypollster.com/.
• UK Polling Report. This blog is written by Anthony Wells. Using information for British polling source and data from marketing research firm, YouGov.com, Wells provide analysis and commentary on polling results and survey methodology relating to British public opinion. Entries are organized chronologically and by topic. Access: http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/blog/index.php.
• Fox News Channel Polls (include “SUBSCRIBE FNC_POLLING” in text body). Access: listserv@listserv.foxnews.com.
• Odum Institute for Research in Social Sciences (subscription instructions at http://www.irss.unc.edu/odum/jsp/content_node.jsp?nodeid=14 ). Access: listproc@irss.unc.edu.
• Public Opinion Research (include "subscribe <listserv name> <your name>" in text body).
Access: listserv@unc.edu.
Other resource lists of Web Sites on public opinion polls
• CISER Data Archive—Public Opinion Surveys (Cornell University). Good annotated list of sources for the actual text or results of public opinion surveys, including U.S. national and regional surveys and cross-national polls. Access: http://www.ciser.cornell.edu/info/polls.shtml.
• Online Survey Research/Public Opinion Centers: a Worldwide Listing (Kansas University). Updated in 2000, the site has a fairly comprehensive list of U.S. university research centers on public opinion listed by state and other academic, commercial, and governmental research centers outside of the United States. Access: http://www2.ku.edu/~coms/links/links2.htm.
• Public Opinion Polls—Research Guide (University of Pennsylvania Library). Contains a long list of print and online sources for polling data. Access: http://gethelp.library.upenn.edu/guides/polisci/polls.html.
• Yale University Library Public Opinion Subject Guide. Good starting point for access to print and online sources for polls and public opinion surveys. Access: http://www.library.yale.edu/socsci/opinion.
About the Authors
Gary Thompson is director of library and audiovisual services, e-mail: thompson@siena.edu, and Sean Conley is reference and media services librarian at Siena College, e-mail: sconley@siena.edu
© 2006 Gary Thompson and Sean Conley
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