Public Opinion

Public Opinion & Survey Resources on the Internet

Site For National Survey Information | Sites Compiling Public Opinion Data | Sites That Focus on Particular Topics | New Jersey Oriented Sites | Guides To and Directories of Public Opinion and Survey Sites | About Public Opinion Surveys (Methodology, Etc.)

Sites For National Survey Information

• Gallup Organization Polls
• General Social Survey ("almost annual… 'omnibus,' personal interview survey of U.S. households conducted by the National Opinion Research Center;" really not for the faint of heart)
• General Social Survey (a more user-friendly version of the GSS, from the U. of California at Berkeley. Data are from 1972 - 2000)
• The Harris Poll Library
• Inter-University Consortium of Political and Social Research (an archive of social science data designed for research and instruction. Not all data sets are free. Not for the faint of heart)
• Los Angeles Times Polls
• New York Times/CBS News Polls
• Washington Post Poll Vault

Sites That Compile Public Opinion Data From Other Sources

• Lexis Nexis Academic Universe: Roper Center for Public Opinion Research File (allows a search of the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research database which includes sources in opinion polling such as Gallup, Harris, Roper; ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC; Los Angeles Times, New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal) Montclair State University users only
• The Odum Institute Public Opinion Poll Question Database (allows searches for specific poll questions among the more than 230,000 questions in the Institute's archive. The archive includes Louis Harris Polls. Not for the faint at heart.)
• PollingReport.com (reports the results of surveys of the American public conducted by other polling companies and groups. Focuses on politics and policy, business and the economy, and "the American scene")
• PublicAgenda Online (in-depth analyses and opinion studies of major issues of interest to the American public. Discussion of public perceptions, based on public opinion polls, are provided for each issue)

Sites That Focus On Particular Topics

• American Public Opinion and U.S. Foreign Policy (public opinion surveys "to gauge the 'extent to which the American public and leaders support an active role for the United States overseas.'")
• American Religion Data Archive

Go to…(links to issue oriented sites on the following topics)

• The Economy
• Education
• Election Issue Links
• The Environment
• Health Care
• Social Security
• Taxes
• Trade

• Health Poll Search ("a searchable archive of public opinion questions on health issues that allows users to know what Americans think about health issues;" from the Kaiser Family Foundation)
• National Archive of Criminal Justice Data Attitude Surveys
• National Election Studies ("data on voting, public opinion, and political participation that serve the research needs of social scientists, teachers, students, policy makers and journalists concerned with the theoretical and empirical foundations of mass politics in a democratic society")
• The NES Guide to Public Opinion and Electoral Behavior ("tables and graphs that display the ebb and flow of public opinion and electoral behavior and choice in American politics since 1948. The Guide presents responses to a small portion of the questions that have been asked in the 1948-1998 National Election Studies")
• Pew Research Center for the People and the Press
• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Data Archive [SAMHDA] (contains data for substance abuse and mental health surveys, including the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse)

New Jersey Oriented Sites

• Eagleton Poll Archive
• Quinnipiac University Polling Institute: New Jersey Surveys
• The Star-Ledger/Eagleton-Rutgers Poll

Guides To And Directories Of Public Opinion And Survey Sites

• Academic Survey Research Centers (maintained by the Survey Research Center at Princeton)
• Online Survey Research/Public Opinion Centers: A Worldwide Listing (links with ratings; maintained by the U. of Kansas. Good for links to state level sites)
• Opinion Sites (links to public opinion sites at other countries)
• Polling Organizations (unannotated links to U.S. and international organizations; from the Yale Univ. Library)
• Poll and Survey Data and Findings (links to sources of poll and survey data; maintained by the Survey Research Center at Princeton)
• Public Opinion Surveys (annotated guide; from the Cornell Institute for Social and Economic Research)
• Survey Research Organization Links (links to survey research associations, academic research institutes, commercial firms and international links; maintained by the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research)

About Public Opinion Surveys [Methodology, etc.]

• About Polling (from Public Agenda Online)
• Research Practice (from the Survey Research Center at Princeton)

Send comments and suggestions to: Steven Shapiro

Last updated: Nov. 14, 2001