Gallup, Inc., is an American research-based, global
performance-management consulting company. Founded by George Gallup in
1935, the company became known for its public opinion polls conducted in
several countries. Gallup provides research and strategic
consulting to large organizations in many countries, focusing on "analytics
and advice to help leaders and organizations solve their most pressing
problems." Some of Gallup's stated key practice
areas are employee engagement, customer engagement, talent management, and
well-being. Gallup has 30 offices in more than 20
countries, employing about 2,000 people in four divisions: Gallup Poll, Gallup
Consulting, Gallup University, and Gallup Press.
History George Gallup founded the American
Institute of Public Opinion, the precursor of the Gallup Organization, in
Princeton, New Jersey, in 1935. He wished to objectively determine the
opinions held by the people. To ensure his independence and objectivity, Gallup
resolved that he would undertake no polling that was paid for or sponsored
in any way by special interest groups such as the Republican and Democratic
parties. In 1936, Gallup successfully predicted
that Franklin Roosevelt would defeat Alfred Landon for the U.S. presidency;
this event popularized the company and made them a leader in American polling.
In 1938, Gallup and Gallup Vice President David Ogilvy began conducting
market research for advertising companies and the film industry. In
1958, the modern Gallup Organization was formed when George Gallup grouped all of
his polling operations into one organization.
In 1985, the organization started compiling video games sales charts in
the United Kingdom. After Gallup's death in 1984, his family
sold the firm to Selection Research, Incorporated, a research firm
headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1988. SRI, founded in 1969 by the
psychologist Don Clifton, pioneered the use of talent-based structured
psychological interviews.. SRI wanted the Gallup name to use on its polls,
which gave them more credibility and higher response rates. Today the poll is
used to gain visibility. George Gallup, Jr., established the
nonprofit George H. Gallup Foundation as part of the acquisition agreement.
Gallup Jr. died on November 21, 2011. Gallup Poll
= Polling in the United States = The Gallup Poll is the division of
Gallup that regularly conducts public opinion polls. Gallup Poll results,
analyses, and videos are published daily in the form of data-driven news. The
poll loses about $10 million a year, but gives the company the visibility of a
well-known brand. Historically, the Gallup Poll has
measured and tracked the public's attitudes concerning political, social,
and economic issues, including sensitive or controversial subjects.
Gallup Daily Tracking Methodology Gallup conducts 1,000 interviews per
day, 350 days out of the year, among both landline and cell phones across the
U.S. for its health and well-being survey and political and economic
survey. Gallup Daily tracking methodology relies on live interviewers,
dual-frame random-digit-dial sampling, and uses a multi-call design to reach
respondents not contacted on the initial attempt.
Gallup completes 500 cellphone surveys and 500 landline surveys daily, divided
evenly between the two topical questionnaires. The population of the
U.S. that relies only on cell phones makes 34% of the population.
The findings from Gallup's U.S. surveys are based on the organization's standard
national telephone samples, consisting of list-assisted random-digit-dial
telephone samples using a proportionate, stratified sampling design. A computer
randomly generates the phone numbers Gallup calls from all working phone
exchanges and not-listed phone numbers; thus, Gallup is as likely to call
unlisted phone numbers as well as listed phone numbers.
Within each contacted household reached via landline, an interview is sought
with an adult 18 years of age or older living in the household who will have
the next birthday. Gallup does not use the same respondent selection procedure
when making calls to cell phones because they are typically associated with one
individual rather than shared among several members of a household. Gallup
Daily tracking includes Spanish-language interviews for Spanish-speaking
respondents and interviews in Alaska and Hawaii.
When respondents to be interviewed are selected at random, every adult has an
equal probability of falling into the sample. The typical sample size for a
Gallup poll, either a traditional stand-alone poll or one night's
interviewing from Gallup's Daily tracking, is 1,000 national adults with
a margin of error of ±4 percentage points. Gallup's Daily tracking process
now allows Gallup analysts to aggregate larger groups of interviews for more
detailed subgroup analysis. But the accuracy of the estimates derived only
marginally improves with larger sample sizes.
After Gallup collects and processes survey data, each respondent is assigned
a weight so that the demographic characteristics of the total weighted
sample of respondents match the latest estimates of the demographic
characteristics of the adult population available from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Gallup weights data to census estimates for gender, race, age, educational
attainment, and region. The data are weighted daily by number of
adults in the household and the respondents' reliance on cell phones, to
adjust for any disproportion in selection probabilities. The data are
then weighted to compensate for nonrandom nonresponse, using targets
from the U.S. Census Bureau for age, region, gender, education, Hispanic
ethnicity, and race. The resulting sample represents an estimated 95% of
all U.S. households. Accuracy
From 1936 to 2008, Gallup Polls correctly predicted the winner of the
presidential election with the notable exceptions of the 1948 Thomas
Dewey-Harry S. Truman election, where nearly all pollsters predicted a Dewey
victory, and 1976, when they inaccurately projected a slim victory by
Gerald Ford over Jimmy Carter. For the 2008 U.S. presidential election, Gallup
correctly predicted the winner, but was rated 17th out of 23 polling
organizations in terms of the precision of its pre-election polls relative to
the final results. In 2012, Gallup's final election survey
had Mitt Romney at 49% and Barack Obama at 48%, compared to the final election
results showing Obama with 51.1% to Romney's 47.2%. Poll analyst Nate Silver
found that Gallup's results were the least accurate of the 23 major polling
firms Silver analyzed, having the highest incorrect average of being 7.2
points away from the final result. Frank Newport, the editor-in-chief of Gallup,
responded to the criticism by stating that Gallup simply makes an estimate of
the national popular vote rather than predicting the winner and that their
final poll was within the statistical margin of error. Newport also criticized
analysts such as Silver who aggregate and analyze other people's polls,
stating that "It’s much easier, cheaper, and mostly less risky to focus on
aggregating and analyzing others’ polls."
In 2012, poll analyst Mark Blumenthal criticized Gallup for a slight but
routine under-weighting of black and Hispanic Americans that led to an
approximately 2% shift of support away from Barack Obama. At the same time,
Blumenthal commended Gallup for its "admirable commitment to transparency"
and suggested that other polling firms disclose their raw data and
methodologies. In 2013, the accuracy of Gallup polling
on religious faith was questioned. Gallup's polling on religiosity in the
U.S. has produced results somewhat different from other studies on
religious issues, including a 2012 study by the Pew Research Center, which found
that those who lack a religious affiliation were a fast-growing
demographic group in the U.S. = Gallup World Poll =
In 2005, Gallup began its World Poll, which continually surveys citizens in
160 countries, representing more than 98% of the world's adult population. The
Gallup World Poll consists of more than 100 global questions as well as
region-specific items. It includes the following global indexes: law and order,
food and shelter, institutions and infrastructure, good jobs, wellbeing,
and brain gain. Gallup also works with organizations, cities, governments and
countries to create custom items and indexes to gather information on
specific topics of interest. Gallup World Poll Methodology
Gallup interviews approximately 1,000 residents per country. The target
population is the entire civilian, non-institutionalized population, aged
15 and older. Gallup asks each respondent the survey questions in his
or her own language to produce statistically comparable results. Gallup
uses telephone surveys in countries where telephone coverage represents at
least 80% of the population. Where telephone penetration is less than 80%,
Gallup uses face-to-face interviewing. Gallup Press
Gallup Inc.'s in-house publishing division, Gallup Press, has published
over 30 books on business and personal well being-related themes, including a
number of best sellers. Notable titles include First, Break All the Rules: What
the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently, How Full Is Your Bucket?,
written by Gallup senior scientist Tom Rath and his grandfather, Don Clifton,
founder of SRI, Strengths Based Leadership, and Now, Discover Your
Strengths, updated to a new version called StrengthsFinder 2.0, which was
Amazon's bestselling book of 2013. Alleged violations of the False Claims
Act and the Procurement Integrity Act In July 2013, the United States
Department of Justice announced that Gallup had agreed to pay $10.5 million
to settle allegations that it violated the False Claims Act and the Procurement
Integrity Act for conduct involving several of its federal government
contracts and subcontracts. The settlement resolved allegations in a
complaint filed by the United States in November 2012. The complaint alleged
that Gallup knowingly overstated its true estimated labor hours in proposals
to the U.S. Mint and State Department for contracts and task orders that were
to be awarded without competition. Because of Gallup’s conduct, the
complaint alleged, the two federal agencies awarded Gallup contracts and
task orders at falsely inflated prices. The settlement also resolved allegations
that Gallup engaged in improper employment negotiations with a then
Federal Emergency Management Agency official, Timothy Cannon, in order to
obtain a FEMA subcontract at an inflated price and additional FEMA funding after
the subcontract had been awarded. The allegations against Gallup were
originally brought in a lawsuit filed under the whistleblower provisions of
the False Claims Act by Michael Lindley, Gallup’s former Director of Client
Services. As a result of the settlement with Gallup, Lindley will receive
$1,929,363 as his share of the government’s recovery. Under the
settlement, there was no prosecution and no determination of liability.
See also Gallup's most admired man and woman poll
Gallup's List of Most Widely Admired People of the 20th Century
George H. Gallup House References
Further reading Boudway, Ira. "Right or Wrong, Gallup
Always Wins, Bloomberg BusinessWeek Nov. 12, 2012
Cantril, Hadley. Gauging Public Opinion Converse, Jean M. Survey Research in the
United States: Roots and Emergence 1890-1960
Gallup, George, ed. The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion, 1935-1971, compilation
of reports on thousands of Gallup polls. Gallup, George. Public Opinion in a
Democracy, Gallup, George. The Sophisticated Poll
Watcher's Guide Moore, David W. The Superpollsters: How
They Measure and Manipulate Public Opinion in America online edition
Roll, Jr., Charles W. and Albert H. Cantril; Polls: Their Use and Misuse in
Politics online edition External links
Official website