Gallup World Poll, Social Series, US Daily and COVID-19 Microdata

Harvard Library provides mediated access to the Gallup World Poll, US Daily Poll, Gallup Poll Social Series (GPSS) and COVID 19 panel microdata (individual questionnaire-level data) for current Harvard affiliates. This data is useful if you'd like to run your own statistical analysis.  The Gallup Analytics resource provides summary-level data. If you are a current Harvard affiliate and would like to use the microdata, please review the guidelines below and submit this form with your request.  If you have questions, please contact Inku Subedi (HBS, DCE, GSD), James Adams (HKS, HLS, HDS), or Diane Sredl and Hugh Truslow (FAS, GSAS, GSE, HSDM, HMS, HSPH, Radcliffe, SEAS)

License restrictions

Our license requires that Harvard Library create custom extracts for you rather than releasing the full datasets.  Below is a description of the datasets and instructions for requesting an extract.

Gallup Poll Microdata Releases

  • World Poll: 2006-2023.  Updated annually usually in February.
  • US Daily Tracker: 2008-2018 (and Well Being for 2019). The US Well Being 2019 survey only includes data from January-August.  
  • Gallup Poll Social Series (GPSS): generally 2001-2023.  Each month is associated with a particular topic.
  • Gallup Panel – COVID-19 Survey: March 2020 - Q1 2023; Wellbeing Q2-Q4 2023.
  • Race Relations Survey: November 2018.
  • Confidence in Institutions Survey: 1973-2023.
  • Honesty and Ethics in Professions Survey: 1976-2023.
  • Religion Battery: 1999-2023.

World Poll

The World Poll data includes data from 168 countries for the years 2006-2023. The variable types include sample, demographic, geographic, and topical. Gallup provides more information about how the Gallup World Poll works.

Before requesting specific variables, we recommend that you read the World Poll documentation.  The best way to find the geographic region, year of survey and variables is to create an account and use the Gallup's World Poll Reference Tool.  Once you have made your selections, please fill out the data request form.

US Daily Tracker Poll

The U.S. Dailies cover the United States from 2009 to 2019.  Political and Economic questions in the US Daily Tracker were incorporated into the GPSS in 2019. You can view the entire US (aggregate) or select an MSA.  (Note that all data are not available for each MSA or for each year.)  You can learn more about how Gallup Daily Tracking works.

It is helpful to search Gallup Analytics for questions asked in the US Daily Tracker poll.  You can search by keyword or browse questions by topics.  Available geographies are the United States, individual states and MSAs.

Please also review these methodology documents: Gallup Daily Methodology_2008-2017.pdf and Gallup Weekly Methodology_2018.pdf and Gallup National Health and Well-Being Index Methodological Documentation (May 2019) to discover information about interview details, sample, geographic information, and general indicators such as age and gender. However, be aware that the official Gallup methods documents do not reflect the fact that some variable names change over time. You should verify your selections by viewing the US Daily Tracker list of variable names and variable labels, by year in this document: US_daily_tracker_2008_2019_codebook.xlsx.

Once you have made your selections, please fill out the data request form.

Gallup Poll Social Series (GPSS)

“The Gallup Poll Social Series (GPSS) is a set of public opinion surveys designed to monitor U.S. adults’ views on numerous social, economic, and political topics. The topics are arranged thematically across 12 surveys. Gallup administers these surveys during the same month every year and includes the survey’s core trend questions in the same order each administration. Using this consistent standard allows for unprecedented analysis of changes in trend data that are not susceptible to question order bias and seasonal effects.”  More information is available from Gallup.

GPSS is broken out into themes by month:

  • January: Mood of the Nation
  • February: World Affairs
  • March: Environment
  • April: Economy and Personal Finance
  • May: Values and Beliefs
  • June: Minority Rights and Relations (the last year of data collection for this poll was 2016)
  • July: Consumption Habits
  • August: Work and Education
  • September: Governance
  • October: Crime
  • November: Health
  • December: Lifestyle (Survey only ran from 2001-2008)

To find variables, look at this codebook with separate spreadsheets for each month GPSS -- Jan to Dec Codebook .xlsx. Each month’s spreadsheet also reports which year the questions were asked. Political and Economic questions (formerly of the US Daily Tracker) were incorporated into the GPSS in 2019. Each month is its own sheet within the spreadsheet. There are two types of variables in this dataset.

(1)  Basic Indicators - include variables that are available for all months assessing the state of the nation, extensive demographic questions, weights, interview information etc. For example:  "Presidential approval - presapp". These variables allow you to do monthly time-period data analysis. 
 
(2) Thematic variables -  include variables that are available only for the designated month. For example. "Foreign Leaders respect president - ldrs_respect" is available only in the "Feb - World Affairs" survey. These variables allow you to to do yearly time-period data analysis. 
 
You can use the search function in Excel to find variables across the workbook to check the type of variables you want to use. This can help you determine which month of the GPSS you need.
 

Once you have made selections, please fill out the data request form.

Gallup Panel COVID-19 and Wellbeing Survey

“The COVID-19 web survey began fielding on March 13, 2020 with daily random samples of U.S. adults, aged 18 and older who are members of the Gallup Panel. Approximately 1,200 daily completes were collected from March 13 through April 26, 2020. From April 27 to August 16, 2020 approximately 500 daily completes are being collected. Starting August 17, 2020, the survey moved from daily surveying to a survey conducted one time per month over a two week field period (typically the last two weeks of the month).  Beginning in 2022, the COVID survey moved to quarterly data collection.”  In the second quarter of 2023, the survey was adjusted to focus on the topic of Wellbeing.

Please look at the COVID-19 survey methodology.pdf and the list of variables in this file COVID_variables_list.xlsx to learn more about the survey and to get the name of the variables.

Once you have made your selections, please fill out the data request form.

Race Relations Survey

 

This survey includes topics that were previously represented in the GPSS Minority Relations Survey that ran through 2016.  This survey was conducted in November 2018.

Please review the Race_Relations_Codebook.xls file to get the name of the variables you are interested in. Once you have made your selections, please fill out the data request form.

Confidence in Institutions Survey 

In 1973 Gallup started measuring the confidence level in several US institutions like Congress, Presidency, Supreme Court, Police and more. This dataset covers 1973-2023.  Data is collected once per year. 

Please review the Confidence_in_Institutions.xls file to get the name of the variables you are interested in. Once you have made your selections, please fill out the data request form.

Honesty and Ethics in Professions Survey

In 1976 Gallup started measuring US perceptions of the honesty and ethics of a list of professions. This dataset covers 1976-2023. 

Please review the Honesty and Ethics.xls file to get the name of the variables you are interested in. Once you have made your selections, please fill out the data request form.

Religion Battery

Consolidated list of items focused on religion in the US from 1999-2023.

Please review the Religion Battery codebook file to get the name of the variables you are interested in. Once you have made your selections, please fill out the data request form.