Research Guides: POLS 275: Political Behavior (HC): Polling Data / Statistics

Accessing Polling Data

Roper Center Public Opinion Archives (iPOLL)
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Find results from US national public opinion surveys (1935-present). Includes public opinion research from 120+ countries. Use this database to find polls from Gallup, Pew, and more.

You can:
- Search iPOLL to find individual survey questions and answers
- Compare public opinion over time
- Find US election exit poll results
- Download full datasets for surveys curated by the Roper Center

Quinnipiac University Polling Institute
Quinnipiac University conducts timely public opinion polls on politics and public policy in Connecticut, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and nationally as a public service and for academic research. Includes a searchable question database with downloadable summaries, trend tables, cross-tabulated tables, and methodological files.
Franklin & Marshall College Poll
Long-running, timely Pennsylvania statewide poll from the Center for Opinion Research. The poll tracks citizen opinion on politics, public affairs, public policy, and elections in Pennsylvania. Downloads include periodic survey release results summaries, and 2008-2011 results for the national-level polls.

Statistical Compilations in Specific Subject Areas

U.S. Election Statistics: A Resource Guide
Resources selected by the Library of Congress.
Vital Statistics on American Politics
Includes data on elections, branches of government, media, social policy, and the economy. Volumes for previous years (online and prior to that in print) allow for comparisons.
American National Election Studies
Open access site with data and resources.
Voters: Data and analysis of women's voting behavior
Sponsored by the Center for American Women and Politics, Rutgers University.

Finding Statistics

Statistics and demographic information often play a key role in political analysis. A vast and complex array of statistical information is available, mostly online. Before attempting to use the more specific statistical sources, it is good to check one of the general statistical sites below maintained by both the government and commercial publishers. Compilations are especially good for finding a single statistic, e.g., the number of elementary school children in the U.S., the ten most populated cities in the United States, the percentage of the U.S. population which is of Hispanic origin, etc.

Explore Census Data This link opens in a new window
Provides population, housing, economic and geographic data from the latest Decennial Census, the Economic Censuses and Surveys, and the American Community Survey. Users can view reference maps and create comparison tables and thematic maps which can be downloaded and printed. Coverage varies.

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)
ICPSR maintains a data archive of more than 250,000 files of research in the social and behavioral sciences. It hosts 21 specialized collections of data in education, aging, criminal justice, healthcare, race, substance abuse, terrorism, and other fields. Includes survey data, census records, election returns, economic data, and legislative records.
Pennsylvania State Data Center
The official source for population and economic statistics for the state.
PolicyMap
PolicyMap includes a range of indicators from the census tract level through the state level about communities. The ability to combine income and education levels along with demographic and quality of life measures allows for identification and interpretations of neighborhoods.

Social Explorer
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Offers access to reports and interactive maps for the U.S. Census (1790-present), World Development Indicators (1960-2013), and Eurostat (European Union data), among others. A project of Queens College, sponsored by the New York Times and the National Science Foundation.

Statistics about the United States
Provides links for statistics from various government offices including Data.gov, the site for all open data.