Substrate/Data/US-Presidential-Approval/RESOURCES.md

Resources - U.S. Presidential Approval Ratings

Primary Data Source

GitHub Repository (Aggregated Dataset)

Repository: lorenzo-ruffino/approval_rate_usa_president

URLs:

• Main Repository: https://github.com/lorenzo-ruffino/approval_rate_usa_president
• Raw Data (Individual Polls): https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lorenzo-ruffino/approval_rate_usa_president/main/historical_approval_polls.csv
• Raw Data (First Term Net Approval): https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lorenzo-ruffino/approval_rate_usa_president/main/historical_net_approval_rate_first_term.csv

Access:

• Free, open source, no authentication required
• Clone: git clone https://github.com/lorenzo-ruffino/approval_rate_usa_president.git
• Direct CSV download from repository

Data Compiler:

• Lorenzo Ruffino (academic research compilation)
• Aggregates data from 15+ professional polling organizations
• Continuous updates as new polls are published

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Original Polling Sources

Gallup Organization (Primary Historical Source)

Organization: Gallup, Inc. Established: 1935 Presidential Approval Since: 1937 (Franklin D. Roosevelt)

URLs:

• Presidential Approval Center: https://news.gallup.com/interactives/507569/presidential-job-approval-center.aspx
• Historical Statistics: https://news.gallup.com/poll/116677/presidential-approval-ratings-gallup-historical-statistics-trends.aspx
• Gallup Analytics (Subscription): https://news.gallup.com/analytics/

Access:

• Interactive visualizations: Free
• Individual poll results: Free (published on website)
• Bulk data download: Requires Gallup Analytics subscription
• Export from interactive tools: Available

Standardized Question: "Do you approve or disapprove of the way [President Name] is handling his job as President?"

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Other Major Polling Organizations

Pew Research Center

• URL: https://www.pewresearch.org/
• Access: Free, all data publicly available
• Methodology: High-quality probability sampling

AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research

• URL: https://apnorc.org/
• Access: Free, all data publicly available
• Methodology: AmeriSpeak® panel (probability-based)

CNN Polls

• URL: https://www.cnn.com/specials/politics/polls
• Access: Free, published on website
• Methodology: SSRS telephone polling

Reuters/Ipsos

• URL: https://www.reuters.com/politics/
• Access: Free, published on website
• Methodology: Online probability panel

Quinnipiac University Polling

• URL: https://poll.qu.edu/
• Access: Free, all data publicly available
• Methodology: Live interviewer telephone polls

American Research Group

• URL: http://americanresearchgroup.com/
• Access: Free, published on website
• Methodology: Telephone polling

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Academic and Institutional Sources

American Presidency Project (UC Santa Barbara)

Organization: University of California, Santa Barbara URL: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/statistics/data/presidential-job-approval

Data Available:

• Presidential Job Approval (All Data): https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/statistics/data/presidential-job-approval-all-data
• Individual President Pages (e.g., Biden): https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/statistics/data/joseph-r-biden-public-approval
• Final Approval Ratings: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/statistics/data/final-presidential-job-approval-ratings

Access:

• Free, web interface
• Data tables with Gallup polling
• Charts and visualizations
• No bulk CSV download (web interface only)

Authority:

• Academic institution (UC Santa Barbara)
• Authoritative source for presidential data
• Widely cited in research

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Roper Center for Public Opinion Research (Cornell University)

Organization: Cornell University URL: https://ropercenter.cornell.edu/presidential-approval

Data Available:

• Presidential Approval Interactive Tool: https://ropercenter.cornell.edu/presidential-approval
• Highs & Lows Comparison: https://ropercenter.cornell.edu/presidential-approval/highslows
• RoperTrends Database: Additional approval data

Access:

• Interactive tool: Free (web interface)
• Data download: Email request to presidential-approval@roper.center (for member institutions)
• Full archive: Requires institutional membership
• Nearly 6,000 approval polls (FDR through Trump as of 2020)

Authority:

• Premier archive for public opinion research
• Cornell University institutional backing
• Comprehensive historical coverage

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Alternative Aggregators (Historical)

FiveThirtyEight (Discontinued 2024)

Note: FiveThirtyEight was acquired by ABC News and discontinued their public data products in 2024.

Historical Data:

• Trump Approval (2017-2021): https://github.com/fivethirtyeight/data/tree/master/trump-approval-ratings
• Biden Approval (archived): May exist in GitHub archives

Legacy Value:

• Weighted polling aggregation methodology
• Poll quality adjustments
• Historical reference for methodology development

RealClearPolitics

URL: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president-biden-job-approval-7320.html

Data Available:

• Current approval polling averages
• Recent polling history (usually past 1-2 years)
• Multiple presidents available

Access:

• Free, web interface
• No bulk download
• Simple averaging (no weighting)

Use Case:

• Current snapshot of approval
• Quick reference for recent trends
• Comparison of multiple recent polls

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Data Analysis Tools and Code

GitHub Code Examples

Historical Approval Ratings Analysis (Elliott Morris):

• Gist: https://gist.github.com/elliottmorris/8775a074deffbfc5a9be098e754a5167
• Includes R code for processing and visualizing approval data
• Historical dataset included (FDR through Obama)

Political Data R Package:

• Repository: https://github.com/elliottmorris/politicaldata
• Function: get_president_approval()
• Aggregates FiveThirtyEight approval polls (historical)

Approval Rate USA President:

• Repository: https://github.com/lorenzo-ruffino/approval_rate_usa_president (primary source)
• Contains update scripts and data processing code

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Additional Research Resources

Academic Datasets

Harvard Dataverse:

• Search: "Presidential Approval"
• URL: https://dataverse.harvard.edu/
• Contains archived polling datasets from academic research

Kaggle:

• Presidential Approval Ratings: https://www.kaggle.com/datasets/huffingtonpost/presidential-approval
• Note: May be outdated (2017 data)

Professional Associations

American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR):

• URL: https://www.aapor.org/
• Professional standards for polling methodology
• Code of ethics for survey research
• Transparency requirements

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API Access (Where Available)

Gallup Analytics API

Access: Requires paid subscription Data: Comprehensive Gallup polling data with crosstabs URL: Contact Gallup for API documentation

Roper Center API

Access: Requires institutional membership Data: Historical polling archive URL: Contact Roper Center for API documentation

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Methodology Documentation

Gallup Methodology

Documentation:

• How Polls Are Conducted: https://news.gallup.com/poll/101872/how-does-gallup-polling-work.aspx
• Presidential Job Approval Methodology: Available on individual poll pages
• Sampling and Weighting: Documented in technical notes

AAPOR Best Practices

Code of Professional Ethics: https://www.aapor.org/Standards-Ethics/AAPOR-Code-of-Ethics.aspx Transparency Initiative: https://www.aapor.org/Standards-Ethics/Transparency-Initiative.aspx

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Citation Guidelines

Citing Original Polls

Gallup Example:

Gallup Organization. (2025, January 2-15). Presidential Job Approval.
Retrieved from https://news.gallup.com/poll/329384/presidential-approval-ratings-joe-biden.aspx

Citing Aggregated Dataset

GitHub Repository:

Ruffino, L. (2025). U.S. Presidential Approval Ratings - Historical Polling Data (1937-2025).
GitHub. https://github.com/lorenzo-ruffino/approval_rate_usa_president

Citing Substrate Curated Version

Substrate:

Substrate Project. (2025). U.S. Presidential Approval Ratings Dataset.
GitHub. https://github.com/danielmiessler/Substrate/tree/main/Data/US-Presidential-Approval

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Contact Information

For Dataset Questions

Substrate Curation:

• GitHub Issues: https://github.com/danielmiessler/Substrate/issues
• Primary Maintainer: Daniel Miessler

Original Compiler:

• GitHub: https://github.com/lorenzo-ruffino/approval_rate_usa_president
• Issues: Use GitHub Issues for data questions

For Polling Methodology Questions

Gallup:

• Email: stlsFRED@stls.frb.org (for FRED-related Gallup data)
• Website: https://news.gallup.com/

Roper Center:

• Email: roper@cornell.edu
• Presidential Approval: presidential-approval@roper.center

American Presidency Project:

• Email: Contact through website
• Website: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/contact

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Last Updated: 2025-11-17 Maintained By: Substrate Data Curation