This is a guide of Political Science resources available to students and faculty at the University of Minnesota. Use the "Getting Started" page for new researchers, and the other pages for more advanced content.
Major Polling Sources
- Pew Research CenterPew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Find in-depth reports and polls; create a free account to download survey data.
- Gallup Analytics This link opens in a new windowGallup Analytics provides trends in public opinion polling, using Gallup US Daily and World Poll questions. Output formats include tables for time-series trends, charts and scatterplots, and maps for individual poll question responses. The subscription to Gallup Analytics includes mediated access to Gallup poll data for the US Daily Poll and World Poll. Contact library staff at busref@umn.edu for more information.
- Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) This link opens in a new windowSearch and find social science datasets, both publicly and privately collected and published. This includes data sets for US and other countries that cover demographics and census, opinion polls, urban studies, education, economics, geography, legal systems, governments and elections, political behavior and attitudes, health care and other social indicators. To download data and resources, create a free personal account by clicking the "Log In" on the top right and selecting "Create Account." Use your University of Minnesota email address.
- iPoll (Roper Center for Public Opinion Research) This link opens in a new windowiPOLL is a collection of polling sources from the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research. It includes surveys from 150 polling organizations that include all major news outlets, Gallup polls, and other research institutions. Use these polls to compare public opinion from 1935-present on a range of issues.
- Polling the Nations This link opens in a new windowPolling the Nations is an online database of public opinion polls containing the full text of 700,000+ questions and responses, from 18,000+ surveys and 1,700+ polling organizations, conducted from 1986 through the present in the United States and more than 100 other countries around the world. Limited to 4 simultaneous users.
Public Opinion Sites
- American National Election StudiesThe American National Election Studies (ANES), a collaboration between Stanford University and the University of Michigan, "produces high quality data on voting, public opinion, and political participation to serve the research needs of social scientists, teachers, students, policy makers and journalists who want to better understand the theoretical and empirical foundations of national election outcomes." Conducted biennially since 1952, the survey "gauges public sentiment on the political process, the role of government, and social and economic issues." This site permits download of the ANES datasets, many of which are also available through ICPSR and CISER.
- ASEP/JDS Databank of International Surveys"ASEP/JDS have been working together since 1990 to provide researchers in the social sciences with friendly and easy to use data bases, including both statistical data and survey data files. Over the years, ASEP/JDS has been archiving its survey data and has produced the necessary programs to make its Data Bank available for researchers, to be used in interactive mode on the internet. Finally, with support from the BBVA Foundation it has been possible to conclude a long process whose principal objective has been to offer an alternative to sociological investigation "on word of honour" (where data are not made available) by making survey datasets available to the research community." Includes Afrobarometer, East-Asian Barometer, Globalbarometer, the Spanish CIRES (Centre for Research on the Social Reality), the Spanish Immigrants Collection, Comparative Studies on Electoral Systems (CSES), Real Instituto Elcano de Estudios Internacionales y Estratégicos, European Values Study (EVS), and World Values Survey (WVS).
- Canadian Opinion Research ArchiveAccessto over 25 years of public opinion survey data, collected by major survey research firms in Canada. Contains hundreds of surveys including thousands of discrete items collected by major commercial Canadian firms dating back to the 1970s.
- General Social Survey (GSS Data Explorer)The GSS has been conducted since 1972 by the National Opinion Research Center. It measures attitudes toward social and public policy issues, economic status, political events, work, and family life. In addition to questions asked each year, topical modules are included on a rotating basis that focus on current issues such as gender equity, religious beliefs, and perception of work. The 1972-2004 file was released in September 2005. ICPSR maintains a GSS Data and Information Retrieval System (GSSDIRS) site that permits you to browse the codebook, select specific variables, and perform some online analyses on the cumulated 1972-2000 file. You may also select extracts for download.
- Health Poll Search"Health Poll Search is a searchable archive of public opinion questions on health issues that allows users to know what Americans think about health issues, as well as what Americans have thought about health issues over time. Health Poll Search is the result of a partnership between the Kaiser Family Foundation and The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at the University of Connecticut. The Roper Center houses an archive of more than 350,000 public opinion questions dating back to 1935. The Health Poll Search archive covers 29 topics and more than 300 subtopics, and holds more than 60,000 questions on health issues from health care surveys that have included questions on health. These questions provide information on public perceptions of HIV/AIDS, reproductive health, health policy and health reform, Medicare and Medicaid, women's health, the uninsured, minority health, and children's health. Response percentages and source information are provided for all questions."
- Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP)Find data on public opinion in the Americas from the Latin American Public Opinion Project; including national surveys; impact evaluation studies; and reports on individual attitudes, evaluations, and experiences.
- National Opinion Research Center (NORC)NORC is a national organization for research at the University of Chicago. From the home page you can access press releases on their recent studies. By selecting the "Projects" option, you will get detailed information on their many studies and surveys, including the General Social Survey. "NORC's projects fall into five major substantive areas: economics and population; education and child development; health survey, program and policy research; substance abuse, mental health, and criminal justice; and statistics and methodology."
- PollingReport.comAn independent, nonpartisan resource on American public opinion covering politics, elections, current events, national security and other issues. Collects numerous polls from major news organizations.
- Program on International Policy AttitudesThe Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) carries out research on public opinion on foreign policy and international issues by conducting nationwide polls, focus groups and comprehensive reviews of polling conducted by other organizations. PIPA is a joint program of the Center on Policy Attitudes (COPA) and the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM), School of Public Affairs, University of Maryland.
- Public AgendaThis free site provided extensive information on current and controversial issues such as abortion and legal gaming, the family, education etc. Each segment has an overview, facts and trends, different perspectives, links to news stories, and results of public opinion polls.
- Science and Engineering Indicators (National Science Foundation)This National Science Foundation biennial report to Congress provides "a broad base of quantitative information about U.S. science, engineering, and technology." The site includes reports from 1993 to the present. If you click on the "Survey Descriptions," you get background information on the various studies conducted, which includes information on the availability of data.
- State Polls (Princeton Libraries)The Princeton Library's guide to Public opinion data, includes a state-by-state breakdown of open poll data.
- Voxgov This link opens in a new windowSearch social media activity of U.S. government agencies and legislative unites including legislators, department chiefs, and other branches in the federal government. Social media includes Twitter feeds, YouTube videos and other output by government entities.
Last Updated: Oct 2, 2024 4:55 PM
URL: https://libguides.umn.edu/political-science