Anti-Trump demonstrations are held across the country
Demonstrators have appeared in cities across the United States as President Trump marks the one-year anniversary of his return to office.
Gallup will soon stop measuring presidential support, the analytics firm confirmed on February 11th.
The Washington, D.C.-based management company founded by George Gallup in 1935 began tracking presidents’ performance 88 years ago.
Starting next year, Gallup will no longer publish “politician favorability ratings,” the company told USA TODAY, saying the decision “reflects an evolution in the way Gallup focuses on public research and thought leadership.”
Gallup, a statistician and founder of the American Public Opinion Research Institute, first sent pollsters across the country during the Great Depression to ask people whether they supported or opposed the way the nation’s commander-in-chief was doing his job.
Since its inception, journalists have used opinion polls to disseminate that information to the public. In addition to tracking a president’s popularity, polls also reveal partisanship and other rapid shifts in public opinion during his time in office.
The changes are part of “a broader, ongoing effort to align all of Gallup’s public services with its mission,” the company said in an email. “For nearly a century, Gallup’s U.S. public opinion polls have provided rigorous, independent insight into the American people — their perspectives, values, and lives. Leader ratings have been part of Gallup’s history. At the same time, the landscape surrounding these metrics has changed.”
Gallup said this information has now been “produced, aggregated, and interpreted so extensively that it is no longer the area in which Gallup can make its most distinctive contribution.”
“Our commitment is to conduct long-term, methodologically sound research on the issues and conditions that shape people’s lives,” the company wrote, adding that that work will continue through the Gallup Poll Social Series, the Gallup Quarterly Business Review, the World Poll, and more.
When did the Gallup poll start?
The Gallup poll officially began in 1938.
The company’s website states that over 95% of the world’s population participates in Gallup World Polls due to their “ability to ask the right questions.”
According to Gallup, more than 4,000 organizations use workplace performance platforms.
Natalie Neisa Alland is a senior reporter at USA TODAY. Contact her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her at X @nataliealund.
