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Public opinion poll/Catalogs

From Citizendium - Reading time: 2 min


Public opinion polling organizations[edit]

There are many polling organizations. The most famous remains the very first one, the Gallup Organization, which was created by George Gallup in 1935.

Other major polling organizations in the U.S. include:

In Britain the most notable "pollsters" are:

  • MORI. This polling organisation is notable for only selecting those who say that they are "likely" to vote. This has tended to favour the Conservative Party in recent years.
  • YouGov, an online pollster.
  • GfK NOP
  • ICR
  • ICM
  • Populus, official The Times pollster.

In Australia the most notable companies are:

In Canada the most notable companies are:

In Nigeria the most notable polling organization is:

All the major television networks, alone or in conjunction with the largest newspapers or magazines, in virtually every country with elections, operate polling operations, alone or in groups.

Several organizations monitor the behaviour of pollsters and the use of polling data, including PEW and, in Canada, the Laurier Institute for the Study of Public Opinion and Policy.[1]

The best-known failure of opinion polling to date in the U.S. was the prediction in 1948 that Thomas Dewey would defeat Harry S. Truman. Major polling organizations, including Gallup and Roper, indicated a landslide victory for Dewey.

In britain, most polls failed to predict the Conservative election victories of 1970 and 1992, and Labour's victory in 1974. However, their figures at other elections have been generally accurate.


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