Statistics and Datasets: Public Opinion Surveys

To serve the research needs of social scientists, teachers, students, policy makers and journalists, the ANES produces high quality data from its own surveys on voting, public opinion, and political participation.

The GSS contains a standard 'core' of demographic, behavioral, and attitudinal questions, plus topics of special interest. Many of the core questions have remained unchanged since 1972 to facilitate time-trend studies as well as replication of earlier findings. The GSS takes the pulse of America, and is a unique and valuable resource. It has tracked the opinions of Americans over the last four decades.

The Institute maintains a variety of public opinion data. Many of these data are available from the Odum Institute Archive Dataverse. Public opinion data can support a variety of social science and multidisciplinary research endeavors, assist in the development of public policy, and provide useful educational resources. The public opinion data available from the Odum Institute Data Archive include the following: Louis Harris Data Center, Carolina Polls, Southern Focus Polls, and Media Polls.

Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. We conduct public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other data-driven social science research.

The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research conducts monthly, non-partisan polls on key social and technological issues. Search the website by topic to find summaries and analyses, or use the “Download Data” link to find public use data files and technical summaries of polls conducted by the AP-NORC Center.

Online resource for public opinion surveys conducted by CBS News.

Gallup.Com provides data-driven news based on U.S. and world polls, daily tracking and public opinion research.

Several European countries participate in the following international continuous survey research programmes. Integrated and national data files are available either from the programme websites or through CESSDA archives. Please follow the links below for further information about the surveys and how to access data.

The Globalbarometer Surveys (GBS) is the first comprehensive effort to measure, at a mass level, the current social, political, and economic atmosphere around the world. It provides an independent, non-partisan, multidisciplinary view of public opinion on a range of policy-relevant issues.

LAPOP surveys, housed at Vanderbilt, analyze citizen views on system support, political tolerance, citizen participation, local government, corruption, and views on authoritarianism.