Centrum Badania Opinii Społecznej (CBOS; English: Centre for Public Opinion Research) is an

opinion poll An opinion poll, often simply referred to as a survey or a poll (although strictly a poll is an actual election) is a human research survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinion ...

ing institute in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

, based in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

. Originally established in communist Poland in 1982,The Public Opinion Research Center (CBOS) homepage at Wayback Machine.
Retrieved July 7, 2015. it has operated as a non-profit public

foundation Foundation may refer to: * Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization ** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S. ** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...

created by a special law since 1997 (''Ustawy o fundacji Centrum Badania Opinii Społecznej z dn. 20 lutego 1997 r., Dz.U. nr 30, poz. 163''). Its statutory purpose is to provide data on the population's opinion regarding political and social issues. Major Polish newspapers and news magazines, such as

Gazeta Wyborcza ''Gazeta Wyborcza'' (; ''The Electoral Gazette'' in English) is a Polish daily newspaper based in Warsaw, Poland. It is the first Polish daily newspaper after the era of " real socialism" and one of Poland's newspapers of record, covering the ...

Rzeczpospolita () is the official name of Poland and a traditional name for some of its predecessor states. It is a compound of "thing, matter" and "common", a calque of Latin ''rés pública'' ( "thing" + "public, common"), i.e. ''republic'', in Engli ...

, and

Polityka ''Polityka'' (, ''Politics'') is a centre-left weekly news magazine in Poland. With a circulation of 200,050 (as of April 2011), it was the country's biggest selling weekly, ahead of ''Newsweek''s Polish edition, '' Newsweek Polska'', and '' W ...

, regularly commission CBOS to conduct polls. Apart from its public function, CBOS also conducts commercial market research to help finance its operations. CBOS conducts a monthly survey on a representative sample of 1,000 adult persons entitled "Current Problems and Events" (''Aktualne problemy i wydarzenia''). The findings are published on a monthly basis and made available on the

internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

with a one-month delay (since 1998). Each monthly report focuses on a specific topic, with certain topics recurring in regular intervals. An abridged English-language newsletter, entitled "Polish Public Opinion" and containing summaries of results on various topics, is also available online and free of charge. In total, CBOS publishes more than 200 reports and books each year. CBOS employs a staff of 40+

sociologists This is a list of sociologists. It is intended to cover those who have made substantive contributions to social theory and research, including any sociological subfield. Scientists in other fields and philosophers are not included, unless at least ...

economists An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this field there are ...

statisticians A statistician is a person who works with theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private and public sectors. It is common to combine statistical knowledge with expertise in other subjects, and statisticians may wor ...

, and computer scientists at its seat in Warsaw, and a nationwide network of interviewers. CBOS's work is supervised by a board established per the 1997 law, consisting of seven academic experts appointed by the

council of ministers A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/ shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or nati ...

and the representatives of the

Sejm The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland ( Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of ...

, the Senate, the

prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

, and the

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

Criticism

CBOS has been accused of performing "magic" on behalf of their clients by both ' magazine,

Polska Agencja Prasowa The Polish Press Agency ( pl, Polska Agencja Prasowa, PAP) is Poland's national news agency, producing and distributing political, economic, social, and cultural news as well as events information. The agency has 14 news desks in its headquarters ...

/JKUB
Cud nie sondaż! Według CBOS Platforma wyprzedza PiS aż o 19 punktów procentowych…

magazine, Internetowe wydanie, 2015-03-12. and ''

''.Agnieszka Kublik
Sa też dobre sondaże.
''

'', Internetowe wydanie, 20.12.2014. For example, results of a survey conducted by CBOS prior to presidential elections of 2015 had shown rapidly growing support for

Civic Platform Civic Platform ( pl, Platforma Obywatelska, PO)The party is officially the Civic Platform of the Republic of Poland (''Platforma Obywatelska Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''). is a political party in Poland. It is currently led by Donald Tusk. It ...

(''Platforma Obywatelska'') even though only ten days earlier, in a different survey conducted by CBOS on behalf of TVN24 (a different client), the Law and Justice (''Prawo i Sprawiedliwość'', PiS) was ahead of PO in terms of popularity. Agnieszka Kublik writing for ''Gazeta Wyborcza'' noted that the poll was a failure not only because of how respondents were being approached by CBOS, but also because of its perceived political affiliations. After the parliamentary election 2019, Europe Elects showed that CBOS had the largest accumulative error among all Polish pollsters, favouring especially the government party PiS.

References

{{Authority control Non-profit organisations based in Poland Public opinion research companies