Explore the Roper Center Archives

The Roper Center holds polling data ranging from the 1930s, when survey research was in its infancy, to the present. Almost 700,000 questions of U.S. samples can be searched at the question-level in iPOLL, while RoperExpress offers downloads of 23,000 datasets from over 100 countries. As part of its mission to maximize use and access for the data in its collection, the Center also provides multiple resources on politics, elections, U.S. policy, and social issues.

Politics

The Roper Center archives provide essential data for understanding U.S. politics. Resources on politics and elections are drawn from the collection’s national public opinion polls, voter exit polls at the state and national level, and other sources.

Presidential Approval

Examine presidential approval ratings from Roosevelt to Obama. Compare each president’s highest and lowest ratings throughout the course of their terms.

US Elections

Explore voting data, including vote by demographic group, on national and state elections, and key polling indicators of public attitudes at the time of presidential elections.

Issues

The Roper Center collection contains public opinion data on an extremely wide range of topics. Go to Topics at a Glance for overviews of popular subject areas or browse recent Issue Briefs below.

Topics at a Glance

Topics at a Glance offers users prepared iPOLL and dataset searches, issue briefs, featured dataset descriptions, and charts and graphics on some of the most popular subject areas in polling.

Issue Briefs

Tensions with North Korea: The 1968 Pueblo Incident

Over the last few months, tensions between the United States and North Korea have been high. Fifty years ago, the ...

Responsibility, Overconfidence, & Intervention Efforts in the Age of Fake News

Who does the public hold accountable in the age of mass misinformation? What is being done now to deal with ...

Data

The Roper Center archive consists of 23,000 datasets from public opinion surveys dating back to the 1930s. By collecting and preserving the collection’s U.S. and international datasets, the Center provides opportunities for researchers to conduct detailed secondary analysis and discover new insights years after the original survey was released. Browse recent highlights from the collection below.

Concerns of Rural America

In June 2017, the Kaiser Family Foundation in partnership with The Washington Post released a poll of 1,686 national adults ...

Long-Term Care in America: Who Should Bear the Responsibilities & Costs of Care

In March 2017, the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research conducted a survey of 1,341 Americans, including an oversample ...

Opinions on the 2017 Women’s Marches

Women’s Marches, a new dataset addition to the archive from the Washington Post, offers valuable insight into the public reaction ...

Want more on election polling data?

Explore various topics in U.S. politics ranging from 1935-present with iPOLL. Search at the question level by keyword, survey organization, date, and more.

Want more on the issues?

Explore the breadth and depth of U.S. public opinion in iPOLL, at the question level. Search nearly 700,000 Q&A from every major survey organization or keep exploring the Issue Briefs and Topics at a Glance.

Want more datasets?

Search our catalog of holdings by keyword, survey organization, date, and more. Looking for international data? We archive datasets from 100+ countries. Subscribe to our RSS feed for more acquisition updates.

Become a Data Provider Today

Archiving your public opinion data at the Roper Center ensures that your data will be professionally curated, increases the impact and visibility of your work, and guarantees that your data will be easily accessible to users now and in the future.

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