Outlet profile

Gallup

U.S. center, nonpartisan polling and analytics

Owned byPrivately held; majority owned by the Clifton family (Jon Clifton, CEO, is the son of Donald O. Clifton, whose firm Selection Research, Inc. acquired Gallup in 1988); roughly one-third of the company is owned by non-family employees

FundingRevenue from paid management consulting services, workplace analytics subscriptions, and proprietary polling research sold to corporate and government clients; no outside investors or state funding

On the administrationmostly neutral

Background

George Gallup founded the American Institute of Public Opinion in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1935, pioneering the use of scientific sampling to measure public opinion at a time when straw polls dominated. His polls correctly predicted Franklin Roosevelt's 1936 reelection, establishing the organization's credibility. After George Gallup died in 1984, Selection Research, Inc. (SRI)—a Nebraska-based research firm founded by psychologist Donald O. Clifton—acquired the organization in 1988. Under Clifton and later his son Jon Clifton (who became CEO in 2021), Gallup shifted from a primarily political polling shop into a broad management-consulting and workplace-analytics firm, though presidential approval tracking remained its most publicly visible product. The Clifton family controls the majority of the company; non-family employees hold roughly one-third. Gallup has faced criticism at times for questionnaire wording and methodological choices, but its Silver Bulletin grade of B+ reflects solid predictive accuracy by industry standards. Today it operates roughly 30–40 offices globally, is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and generates an estimated $200 million or more in annual revenue from consulting and subscription services.

Sources

Profile compiled 2026-07-22; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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