Gallup, Inc. is an American analytics and advisory company based in
Washington, D.C. Founded by
George Gallup in 1935, the company became known for its public
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 ...
s conducted worldwide. Starting in the 1980s, Gallup transitioned its business to focus on providing analytics and management consulting to organizations globally.
In addition to its analytics, management consulting, and Gallup Poll, the company also offers educational consulting, the
CliftonStrengths assessment and associated products, and business and management books published by its Gallup Press unit.
Organization
Gallup is a private, employee-owned company based in Washington, D.C.
Its headquarters is located at The Gallup Building.
It maintains between 30 and 40 offices globally, including offices at the Gallup Riverfront Campus in Omaha, Nebraska, and has about 2,000 employees.
Jon Clifton is Gallup's CEO.
Gallup, Inc. has no affiliation with
Gallup International, sometimes referred to as Gallup International Association or GIA.
Gallup has sued Gallup International and other organizations for the unauthorized use of the Gallup name.
History
Early history
George Gallup (1901–1984) founded the American Institute of Public Opinion, the precursor of the Gallup Organization, in
Princeton, New Jersey
Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whi ...
, in 1935.
Gallup attempted to make his company's polls fair by sampling demographics representative of each state's voters.
Gallup also refused to conduct surveys commissioned by organizations such as the
Republican and
Democratic
Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to:
Politics
*A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people.
*A member of a Democratic Party:
**Democratic Party (United States) (D)
**Democratic ...
parties, a position the company has continued to hold.
In 1936, Gallup successfully predicted that
Franklin Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
would defeat
Alfred Landon for the
U.S. presidency in direct contradiction to the popular ''
The Literary Digest''; this event popularized the company and made it a leader in American polling.
In 1938, Gallup began conducting market research for advertising companies and the film industry.
By 1948, Gallup's company established polling organizations in a dozen other countries
and Gallup's polls were syndicated in newspapers in the U.S. and abroad.
The modern Gallup Organization formed in 1958, when George Gallup grouped all of his polling operations into one organization.
Since George Gallup's death
George Gallup died in 1984. Four years later, his family sold the firm for an undisclosed price to Selection Research, Incorporated (SRI), a research firm in
Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County, Nebraska, Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. List of ...
.
The family's involvement with the business continued; sons
George Gallup Jr. and
Alec Gallup Alec Miller Gallup (January 4, 1928 – June 22, 2009) was an American pollster, who served as chairman of the Gallup Poll, after the 1984 death of his father, George Gallup, who created the poll in 1935.
Gallup was born in Iowa City, I ...
kept their positions as co-chairmen and directors.
George Gallup Jr. (1930–2011) established the
nonprofit George H. Gallup Foundation as part of the acquisition agreement.
[ SRI, founded in 1969 by the psychologist Don Clifton, focused on market research and personnel selection; it pioneered the use of talent-based structured psychological interviews. Acquiring the Gallup name gave SRI more credibility and higher response rates.]
Following its sale to SRI, Gallup repositioned itself as a research and management consulting company that works with businesses to identify and address issues with employees and their customers. Gallup continues to conduct and report on public polls. While the Gallup Poll generates relatively smaller portion of revenue for the company, it helps the company maintain visibility.
In the 1990s, Gallup developed a set of 12 questions it called Q12 (also known as '' 12: The Elements of Great Managing'') to help businesses gauge employee engagement, it entered partnerships to conduct polls for ''USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virg ...
'' and CNN, and launched its Clifton StrengthsFinder online assessment tool. In 1999, Gallup analysts wrote '' First, Break All the Rules'', a bestselling book on management. '' Fortune Small Business'' wrote that the success of the book bolstered Gallup's consulting business.
In 2012, Gallup incorrectly predicted that Mitt Romney
Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American politician, businessman, and lawyer serving as the junior United States senator from Utah since January 2019, succeeding Orrin Hatch. He served as the 70th governor of Massachusett ...
would win the 2012 U.S. presidential election
The 2012 United States presidential election was the 57th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 6, 2012. Incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama and his running mate, incumbent Vice President Joe Biden, were r ...
. Following the results of the election, Gallup spent six months reviewing its methodology. The company concluded that its methodology was flawed as it made too few phone calls in Eastern and Pacific time zones, overestimated the white vote, and relied on listed landline phones that skewed the sample to an older demographic.
In July 2013, the United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and a ...
and Gallup reached a $10.5 million settlement based upon allegations that the company violated the False Claims Act and the Procurement Integrity Act. The complaint alleged that Gallup overstated its labor hours in proposals to the U.S. Mint
The United States Mint is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury responsible for producing coinage for the United States to conduct its trade and commerce, as well as controlling the movement of bullion. It does not produce paper money; that ...
and State Department
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nat ...
for contracts and task orders to be awarded without competition. The Department of Justice alleged that the agencies awarded 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
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), initially created under President Jimmy Carter by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and implemented by two Exe ...
(FEMA) official, Timothy Cannon, for work and funding. Michael Lindley, a former Gallup employee, originally made the allegations against Gallup under the False Claims Act. Lindley received nearly $2 million of the settlement. Under the settlement, there was no prosecution and no determination of liability.[
Gallup decided not to conduct horse-race polling of the ]2016 U.S. presidential election
The 2016 United States presidential election was the 58th quadrennial United States presidential election, presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. The Republican Party (United States), Republican ticket of businessman Donald ...
to help Gallup focus on its consulting business. Gallup officials said polling could still be accurate during the election, but the company decided to reallocate resources. Gallup Editor-in-Chief Frank Newport told ''The Washington Post'' said Gallup felt polling the public on issues was a better use of resources.
Gallup Poll
Polling in the United States
The Gallup Poll is the division of Gallup that regularly conducts public 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 ...
s. Gallup Poll results, analysis, and videos are published daily in the form of data-driven news. Conducting polls brings the company financial losses of about $10 million a year, but gives Gallup company the visibility of a well-known brand, which helps promote its corporate research.
Historically, the Gallup Poll has measured and tracked the public's attitudes concerning political
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studi ...
, social
Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not.
Etymology
The word "social" derives from ...
, and economic
An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with t ...
issues, including sensitive or controversial subjects.
Gallup Daily tracking methodology
Gallup Daily tracking is made up of two surveys: the Gallup U.S. Daily political and economic survey and the Gallup–Healthways Well-Being Index. For both surveys, Gallup conducts 500 interviews across the U.S. per day, 350 days out of the year, with 70% on cellphones and 30% on landlines. Gallup Daily tracking methodology relies on live interviewers, dual-frame random-digit-dial sampling (which includes landline as well as cellular telephone phone sampling to reach those in cell phone-only households), and uses a multi-call design to reach respondents not contacted on the initial attempt.
The population of the U.S. that relied only on cell phones was 34% in 2012.
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 (RDD) telephone samples using a proportionate, stratified sampling design. A computer randomly generates the phone numbers Gallup calls from all working phone exchanges (the first three numbers of your local phone number) 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, usin