What is a poll ?
Polls are scientific surveys designed to measure the views of a particular group of people - in politics this tends to be the UK electorate.
Who are some of the big companies ?
- YouGov
- Redfield and Wilton Strategies
- SavantaUK
- Deltapoll UK
- Opinium Research
- Techne UK
- Omnisis
- Moreincommon
- Wethinkpolling
- Peoplepolling
Make sure to follow these companies for regular updates
How do they work ?
- Polling companies work by asking a relatively small number of people from diverse backgrounds to give an accurate representation of the views of everyone
Who carries out polls ?
There are a number of reputable, independent polling companies including Ipsos Mori, Yougov, ComRes and the ones mentioned above.
They carry out some polls independently while others are funded by third parties like the media, or partisan clients which can be political parties, lobbying organisation or interest group - who may be commissioning the survey expecting a particular response.
Who do they question ?
Polling firms use quota sampling. This involves designing a sample of people thats representative of the population as a whole, with the right balance of gender, age, socio-economic background , and so on. Interviewers then have to go out and find them to tick each one of those boxes.
Results can also be weighted, so if you only manage to find 100 people aged 18 to 34, but needed to find 110, you can weight the response of each one of those you did find to count as 1.1 people in order to better reflect the population as whole.
How is this done ? How can you get involved ?
It tends to be done on the phone or online.
- Yougov does this online, you can earn money by signing up to do their surveys. They ask a number of questions including who you would vote for in the next election
- Ipsos Mori (Ipsos) does it through phoning people. However, those who are unemployed, retired or WFH are more likely to answer the phone so raises the risk of an attitudinal bias.
Polling companies offer a range of different jobs within the sphere of politics. This provides a great opportunity for students especially those who have studied data, electoral politics and polling modules.