American Institute of Public Opinion

American survey corporation

Also known as: Gallup Poll

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June 18, 2026

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The American Institute of Public Opinion, later known as the Gallup Poll, was founded in 1935 by statistician George Horace Gallup. This survey corporation gained fame for accurately predicting Franklin D. Roosevelt's victory in the 1936 U.S. presidential election, a feat that boosted public trust in polling.12

The organization, now called the Gallup organization, conducts surveys to gauge public opinion on political and economic issues and has expanded into business performance metrics, marketing research, and consulting. Public opinion polling, while effective at measuring "what" or "how much," is less adept at explaining "how" or "why" opinions are formed.13

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public opinion
Opinion research
…first questions asked by the American Institute of Public Opinion, later to be called the Gallup Poll, was “Are Federal expenditures for relief and recovery too great, too little, or about right?” To this, 60 percent of the sample replied that they were too great, only 9 percent thought they…
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…first questions asked by the American Institute of Public Opinion, later to be called the Gallup Poll, was “Are Federal expenditures for relief and recovery too great, too little, or about right?” To this, 60 percent of the sample replied that they were too great, only 9 percent thought they…
Read More

George Gallup
…an American public-opinion statistician whose Gallup Poll became almost synonymous with public-opinion surveys. Gallup helped to advance the public’s trust in survey research in 1936 when he, Elmo Roper, and Archibald Crossley, acting independently but using similar sampling methods, accurately forecast the victory of Franklin D. Roosevelt over Alfred M.
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…an American public-opinion statistician whose Gallup Poll became almost synonymous with public-opinion surveys. Gallup helped to advance the public’s trust in survey research in 1936 when he, Elmo Roper, and Archibald Crossley, acting independently but using similar sampling methods, accurately forecast the victory of Franklin D. Roosevelt over Alfred M.
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probability and statistics
Samples and experiments
…fame in 1936 when his polls, employing stratified sampling, successfully predicted the reelection of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in defiance of the Literary Digest’s much larger but uncontrolled survey, which forecast a landslide for the Republican Alfred Landon.
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…fame in 1936 when his polls, employing stratified sampling, successfully predicted the reelection of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in defiance of the Literary Digest’s much larger but uncontrolled survey, which forecast a landslide for the Republican Alfred Landon.
Read More