Become a Member

The Roper Center
Public Opinion Archives
is the largest archives of public opinion data in
existence. The Roper Center does not conduct
polls—instead, its mission is one of preservation
and access. The Center provides access to over
17,000 surveys conducted in the US and abroad
over the last 70+ years.
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R PER
PUBLIC OPINION ARCHIVES
Providing access to the world’s voice since 1947
www.RoperCenter.UConn.edu
University of Connecticut
369 Fairfield Way, Unit 2164
Storrs, CT 06269
860.486.4440
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The US Collection
Exit Polls
The Center’s maintains the entire collection of National Election Day Exit Polls—surveys of
US voters as they leave voting booths on Election Day. The collection of national general
exit polls consists of 33 individual studies including all presidential elections since 1972 and
all off-year congressional elections since 1978. Questionnaires and computer-readable
datafiles are available for each study.
Typically, national exit polls consist of presidential
and/or congressional vote questions in addition to
Here are just some examples of the range of topics covered in these holdings—
questions on gubernatorial races, important issues
affecting the vote decision, presidential approval,
current national issues, and basic demographic
Crime [justice system, danger assessments, punishment, gun control, …]
variables such as gender, race, education, income, and
Drugs and Alcohol [youth, regulation, related family problems, …]
age, among others. Sample sizes for these studies
Family [raising children, non-traditional family structures, societal pressures …]
usually range from 8,000 to 20,000 voters, permitting
Education [funding, rules, testing, classroom problems, courses, sports, …]
extensive multivariate analysis.
Civil Liberties [what will Americans sacrifice for protection]
Minorities [equality, affirmative action, race relations, …]
Democracy [government systems, free enterprise, freedom, patriotism, …]
Environment [regulation, pollution, economics, sacrifice, recycling, …]
Social Capital [participation in social and political groups]
Terrorism [international issues, 9-11, homeland security, …]
The international collection of datafiles includes over
Energy [alternative sources, prices, conservation, …]
100 countries and spans 7 decades. Studies collected
Abortion [who’s decision, various circumstances, morality, …]
by the United States Information Agency from the
Welfare & Poverty [hard work and getting ahead, opportunities, …]
1950s to 1999 alone number over 1,000 and most
Women [work, family, politics, equality, …]
have documentation in English. The Latin American
The Social Science research community relies greatly on quantitative analysis of
survey data and the Roper Center’s collection of polls of the general public are
one critical component of these analyses. The collection’s broad range of topics
encourages scholars to conduct secondary analysis and investigate how different
groups within society responded to questions on just about any policy matter.
International
Holdings
These subject areas and many more are available using the iPOLL database of a
half-million questions and answers from all of the major polling organizations in the
United States, including, but not limited to these sources:
CBS News
CNN
Newsweek
USA Today
Louis Harris & Assoc.
Kaiser Family Fdn.
Fox News
New York Times
ABC News
Pew Research Center
Gallup Organization
Los Angeles Times
Time magazine
Wall Street Journal
Associated Press
NBC News
Washington Post
AARP
Ipsos-Public Affairs
National Opinion Research Center
collection of data is considered one of the largest and
strongest in the world; with surveys from 16 different
countries, many containing questions about the trials and tribulations of being
emerging democracies. To check out the international holdings, look to the Search
For Datasets catalog available on the Center’s web site:
www.RoperCenter.UConn.edu
Roper Center datasets are available in ASCII and some in SPSS format. The
documentation is in PDF and/or MSWord.
Educational Resources on Polls
Visit the Roper Center site to access two tutorials on polling. Polling101 provides an
introduction or a refresher on the fundamentals of polling that includes sampling,
error, how to read tables, etc. For more advanced training of interpretation of poll
results, Polling 201 offers tips on what to look for when analyzing survey data.