Provided by the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at Cornell University, Roper iPoll is the largest collection of public opinion poll data with results from 1935 to the present. Roper iPoll contains nearly 800,000 questions and over 23,000 datasets from both U.S. and international polling firms. Surveys cover any number of topics including, social issues, politics, pop culture, international affairs, science, the environment, and much more. When available, results charts, demographic crosstabs and full datasets are provided for immediate download.
Before launching into a search in the Roper Center data archive, first get clear about the variables you’d ideally want in a dataset. It might be helpful to make a list. For example, if you are studying confidence in news media sources and you want to analyze results by geographic area, level of education, income, and voter participation, then you will need to find a single dataset that includes questions addressing all of these elements:
It is important to consider the characteristics of the sample used in a study, particularly if you plan to conduct your analysis at small geographic levels. Roper’s catalog provides characteristics of the samples used in each survey.
After you have created your list of variables, you can begin to search for surveys. The iPOLL database which features keyword searching on questions within surveys. It displays full text of survey questions and the statistical breakdown of multiple-choice format responses. There are many Roper datasets which have not been added to iPOLL, so it's good to check both.
Watch for these symbols:
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Data is available for download |
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Shows how respondents answered the single question |
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Variables can be analyzed online in the browser |
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Data is not available for immediate download, but can be specially requested. Contact the Data Services Librarian (Marie Concannon), |
