Research Guides: Public Opinion: Sources for Public Opinion Results and Data

Sources for Historic Public Opinion

Print Reference Books

The Gallup Poll
Essential. Print only. Reference Collection. Volumes span 1935 to present. Provides brief descriptions of individual polls with questions and top responses.
Additional data may be found in The Gallup Poll Tuesday Briefing, Gallup Report, Gallup Opinion Index, or the Gallup Political Index
Called Gallup Poll Tuesday Briefing from 2002-2006, Gallup Poll Monthly from 1989-2002, Gallup Report from 1981-1989, Gallup Opinion Index from 1967-1981, Gallup Political Index from 1965-1967. (Must request from Knouse Off-site Storage.)

Gettysburg Subscription Database

ICPSR
Provides access to Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), the world's largest archive of digital social science data. Years of coverage: varies by dataset.

To login, click Log In at the top right of the page, select Access through your institution, find Gettysburg College, and login with your Gettysburg network username and password. If you are logging in for the first time, follow the directions to finish setting up your account. Detailed instructions are available on the ICPSR help website.
Roper iPoll
Roper iPoll is a large collection of poll data, covering 1935 to the present, from U.S. and international polling firms with broad topical coverage of opinions and behavior on social issues, politics, pop culture, international affairs, and more. Content includes polling questions, charts, demographic crosstabs, and datasets.

Free Resources - United States

Pew Research Center
Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. Datasets available for download.
Reuters Polling
Weekly online polls since 2012 on a wide variety of topics in the United States.
American National Election Studies
A collaboration between Stanford and the University of Michigan, ANES conducts surveys on voting, public opinion, and political participation. Datasets available to download with creation of free user account.
Odum Institute Archive Dataverse
Contains social science data curated and archived by the Odum Institute Data Archive at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Some key collections include the primary holdings of the Louis Harris Data Center, the National Network of State Polls, and other Southern-focused public opinion data.
PollingReport.com
Independent and nonpartisan aggregator of polling data from major pollsters of American public opinion.
General Social Survey
Since 1972, the General Social Survey (GSS) has provided politicians, policymakers, and scholars with a clear and unbiased perspective on what Americans think and feel about such issues as national spending priorities, crime and punishment, intergroup relations, and confidence in institutions.

Free Resources - International

Global Barometer Surveys
ollaborative research project consisting of six regional barometers. It is the first comprehensive effort to measure, at a mass level, the current social, political, and economic climate around the world.
Refer to specific surveys: Afro Barometer, Asian Barometer, Eurasia Barometer, Arab Barometer, Latino Barametro, and Global Barometer.
International Republican Institute
IRI conducts polls around the world with an emphasis on elections and democracy.
Latin American Public Opinion Project
In 2004, LAPOP established the AmericasBarometer as multi-country, regularly conducted survey of democratic values and behaviors in the Americas, organized by a consortium of academic and think-tank partners in the hemisphere.
Pew Research Global Attitudes & Trends
Contains data from public opinion surveys from around the world on a wide range of topics. Datasets available for download.
World Public Opinion
Managed by the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, WPO is an international collaborative project whose aim is to give voice to public opinion around the world on international issues.
World Values Survey
The survey, which started in 1981, seeks to use the most rigorous, high-quality research designs in each country. The WVS consists of nationally representative surveys conducted in almost 100 countries which contain almost 90 percent of the world’s population, using a common questionnaire.

United States Media Polls

Finding Public Opinion Results in News or Academic Journal Articles

Gettysburg Subscription Databases

If you're looking for public opinion data that may be cited in news magazines, newspapers, or academic journal article, these general databases are a good place to start searching since they include all of these types of sources.

For your search, consider building a search like: "your topic" AND "public opinion" OR poll

ProQuest Central Premium

Provides access to thousands of full-text scholarly journals, trade and professional titles, newspapers, magazines, dissertations, working papers, case studies, and market reports. Content covers all major subject areas, including business, health and medical, social sciences, arts and humanities, education, science and technology, and religion.
Readers’ Guide Retrospective
Provides citations to articles on all subjects from approximately 375 general and popular magazines (no scholarly journals), 1890-1982.

Academic Journals

International Journal of Public Opinion Research (Gettysburg login)
The International Journal of Public Opinion Research publishes studies of public opinion that contribute to theory development and testing about political, social and current issues, particularly those that involve comparative analysis; - the role of public opinion polls in political decision making, the development of public policies, electoral behavior, and mass communications; - evaluations of and improvements in the methodology of public opinion surveys.
Public Opinion Quarterly (Gettysburg login)
Published since 1937, Public Opinion Quarterly is among the most frequently cited journals of its kind. POQ selectively publishes important theoretical contributions to opinion and communication research, analyses of current public opinion, and investigations of methodological issues involved in survey validity—including questionnaire construction, interviewing and interviewers, sampling strategy, and mode of administration.
Public Perspective (Gettysburg off-site storage)
For 14 years, Public Perspective was the flagship publication of the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, the oldest and largest archives of polling data in the world, and the only magazine devoted entirely to public opinion and polling. Articles cover a wide range of topics written by specialists in the field of polling, as well as eminent political and social scientists, experts in policymaking and electoral politics, and media. (Must request from Knouse Off-site Storage.)