Top 5 Gallup.com Basics

Every time I talk to someone about Gallup.com, I tell them something about our site they tell me they "had no idea!" about. It's usually something I think everyone who visits our site would definitely know. And since this blog is to help you get to know us and what we do, I've decided to go ahead a list out the Top 5 things about our site that I think all of our readers should know.

1) We poll 1,000 Americans every night. Real interviewers, on the phone, calling real Americans around the country. After one week of surveying, we have 7,000 interviews. After a month, we have 30,000. After a year, we have 350,000. These large samples allow us to look at extensive demographic breaks and unique cross-tabulations of our daily measures. They also allow us to report state-level results twice per year and congressional district-level results at the end of the year.

2) We report the results of our Gallup Daily tracking every day at 1pET on the ticker-like banner at the top of our homepage. We generally report results based on three-day rolling averages and we report the change from the previous reporting period. You can click on any measure to get the long-term trend for that item and even export the data into an Excel spreadsheet for your own graphing and modeling pleasure. We write stories about these measures whenever we see something meaningful or newsworthy. These results are not based on "a Gallup Poll," but rather an analysis of continuous, daily monitoring.

3) We also conduct standalone surveys, usually on weekends. These are sometimes conducted in partnership with USA Today, and sometimes conducted on our own. These surveys usually include topical questions and long-standing Gallup trends not included in our daily tracking. We report most of these findings in stories on Gallup.com and also archive the trend results in our Topics A-Z.

4) We survey about much more than politics. We, in fact, apply Gallup's gold-standard methodology to four key areas -- politics, business, well-being and world. Our daily economic tracking includes the most up-to-date data available on Americans' attitudes about the economy, their companies' hiring situations, and their spending habits. Our daily well-being tracking includes the most precise data available on Americans' health conditions and behaviors. Our global tracking monitors the political, economic, and social attitudes and behaviors of citizens in more than 150 countries around the world. It's the same Gallup, the same standards, and the same Web site.

5) We're much more than "polls" and "public opinion." While some of our surveys do gauge people's opinions, many of our questions result in hard evidence about what people are doing -- at their jobs, in their communities, with their money, and with their bodies. The bulk of our data are, in fact, behavioral economic data, which, in many cases, reveal the precursors for the effects we see in classical economic data.

Explore our site and you'll see the distinctions I mention above. We're also in the process of updating our Frequently Asked Questions, so if you've got one -- about our surveys or site -- please feel free to leave a comment or e-mail us.