Where does the Gallup Poll get its stats from?

The Gallup Organization is global, so it depends on who hires them to conduct the surveys/data collecting and who the targeted audience is. How they choose who fits into the targeted audience is beyond me though. Here is a link to the Gallup Organization website. You might be able to find out the answer there.

Like @Pied_Pfeffer said, it depends on what they are studying. If you look at their polls, they usually mention how they got that information. For example, I looked at their presidential approval poll and it said they get results from phone interviews with 1500 people.

Hm. They should have a vote button IN the Gallup poll, with some way to stop people from voting more than once. But I don’t know how they could do that….

@Dutchess_III Unless I’m missing something, The Gallup Organization doesn’t conduct online polls for the general population. For the surveys they have done with our company, it has all been over the phone, or through very controlled online surveys with a one-time code assigned to each team member participating.

Like most market research firms, they collect data from a relevant sample and can make inferences about the population from which that sample is drawn within the limits of statistical error.

If you do not understand this explanation, then you should be careful what conclusions you draw from what reports you hear or read about their results.

@Pied_Pfeffer How do you control bias?

I understand @Dr_Lawrence, and I often question statistics or facts, but again, what controls do they have in place to control bias? That probably would have been a better way to phrase this question.

That question is best addressed to the Gallup methodologists.

Can you give an example of a survey you would like to participate in, and I’ll see if I can provide an example of how bias is controlled.

I am a retired methodologist, I don’t need that explained to me, thanks.

@Dr_Lawrence Sorry…the post was not directed to you, but to @Dutchess_III who asked the original question and an addl. post addressed to me. I should have made it more specific.

Um, one on Obama’s approval rating. (Thanks!)

There are dozens of Gallup polls on Obama’s approval rating. You can go to the GO site and find the one that has your interest. Click on the link and it provides the stats as well as what their survey methods were, such as this one.

Nice! Thanks @Pied_Pfeffer