Gallup Polls

The Gallup Organization

When Dr. Gallup founded the Gallup Organization, he set out with a personal dedication to gathering and reporting the “public will” through independent and objective polling. The Gallup Organization has kept its founder's personal vision in focus. To this day, the Gallup Organization refuses requests for sponsored or paid polls and will not undertake polling that represents any particular agenda or special interest group. Similar to its historic dedication to objectivity and independence, the Gallup Organization also remains firmly committed to discovering public attitudes along a wide array of current issue areas.

“Gallup” became a household name in 1936, when the first Gallup Poll contradicted the most popular pollster of the time to successfully predict that Franklin Delano Roosevelt would win the U.S. presidency. With its genesis as a barometer for predominantly political issues, the Gallup Poll has expanded its focus over the years and now covers a diverse and comprehensive list of topics related to political, social, and economic subjects. The Gallup Organization has also grown beyond its original location in Princeton, New Jersey, and now conducts business from offices across the world. Likewise, the subjects of Gallup's public opinion polls have extended well beyond U.S. borders. The first global polls were conducted in the late 1930s to gather and report public opinion across almost fifty countries prior to the start of World Warll.

With the addition of its landmark global quality of life survey in 1976, the Gallup Poll has become an internationally recognized and respected source for public opinion data. Today, the Gallup Poll continues to provide thorough and in-depth examinations of public attitudes across an expansive range of matters such as politics, elections, crime, education, civil liberties, moral and controversial issues, economics, business, the environment, religion, war, personal concerns, and so on. Overall, the Gallup Poll provides a useful service to many different arenas, including, but not limited to, the field of education.

Contributions to Education

For educators, “Gallup Poll” is synonymous with the annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools that began in the late 1960s and was originally envisioned by James Kettering and Edward Brainard of the Kettering Foundation. George Gallup became involved as the first director of this well-known educational public opinion poll in 1969. The PDK/Gallup Poll, published annually in the Phi Delta Kappan education journal, collects and reports America's thoughts on a series of contemporary issues in public education. George Gallup was involved in the yearly generation of each PDK/Gallup Poll until his son and cochair of the Gallup Organization took his place upon his death.

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