What WAPOR does

WAPOR (World Association for Public Opinion Research) is an international nonprofit professional association founded in 1947, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia. It serves as the principal global forum for public opinion and survey research professionals, including academic researchers, professional pollsters, journalists, and government research institutions. Membership is segmented into Individual, Regional Chapter, Friends of WAPOR, and Organizational tiers, each providing subscription access to the International Journal of Public Opinion Research (IJPOR, distributed via Oxford University Press), discounted event registration, and access to a digital resource library of training seminars and conference materials.

WAPOR monetizes through four primary revenue streams: recurring membership subscriptions, one-time conference registration fees for the annual conference (79th edition planned for Mexico City in October 2026) and four regional conferences (Asia Pacific, Latinoamérica, Sub-Saharan Africa, WANA), professional services revenue from 180-minute training workshops, and subscription and one-time publication sales including IJPOR and Freedom to Publish Opinion Polls reports. The association does not develop proprietary technology products; its infrastructure consists of a public website (wapor.org), a member portal (access.wapor.org), webinar tooling, and the IJPOR submission and peer review system. Operations are supported by 14 staff, an elected Executive Council, and a network of National Representatives covering 102 countries as of 2026, with a stated growth target of approximately 140 countries.

Name

WAPOR

Legal name

World Association for Public Opinion Research

Website

https://wapor.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1947

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

WAPOR is a 1947-founded international nonprofit professional association headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, serving public opinion researchers across 102 countries via membership, annual and regional conferences, the IJPOR journal, training workshops, and professional ethics standards.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Alexandria

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Membership Fees: Individual and organizational membership subscriptions provide recurring revenue. Membership includes subscription to the International Journal of Public Opinion Research, reduced registration fees at WAPOR events, and access to training materials.
2. Conference Registration: Registration fees for annual conferences and regional/thematic conferences generate revenue from attendees. Reduced rates are available for members.
3. Training Workshops: Skills-based training sessions in public opinion research methodology, run concurrently with annual conferences. Each workshop runs for 180 minutes.
4. Publications: Sales of publications including the International Journal of Public Opinion Research, Freedom Reports, annual reports, and the ESOMAR/WAPOR Guide to Opinion Polls.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

WAPOR is an international nonprofit professional association that provides membership, publications, conferences, training, and professional standards for the public opinion research community. Its flagship offerings are the International Journal of Public Opinion Research (IJPOR), the annual global conference, regional conferences across four chapters, training workshops, and the Code of Professional Ethics and Practices. Membership is offered to individuals and organizations, with regional chapter affiliations covering Asia Pacific, Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and West Asia/North Africa.

Product overview

WAPOR (World Association for Public Opinion Research) is an international professional association, not a product company. Its offerings consist of professional services, events, and publications including: the International Journal of Public Opinion Research (IJPOR), annual and regional conferences, webinars, training workshops, the GRIT research initiative, awards, newsletters, WAPORnet, and professional resources such as standard definitions and ethics guidelines. These are association services, not commercial software products.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• International Journal of Public Opinion Research (IJPOR): The official peer-reviewed academic journal published by WAPOR covering all aspects of public opinion research

Products and services

• WAPOR Individual Membership Annual membership subscription for individual public opinion research professionals, providing access to IJPOR, reduced conference registration fees, and the Resource Library of training materials and recorded seminars.
• WAPOR Organizational Membership Membership tier for organizations and institutions engaged in public opinion research, polling, and survey methodology.
• Regional Chapter Membership Membership in WAPOR's four regional chapters: WAPOR Asia Pacific, WAPOR Latinoamérica, WAPOR Sub-Saharan Africa, and WAPOR WANA (West Asia North Africa).
• International Journal of Public Opinion Research (IJPOR) WAPOR's official peer-reviewed academic journal publishing high-quality substantive and methodological papers on public opinion research, distributed through Oxford University Press.
• WAPOR Annual Conference WAPOR's flagship annual global conference bringing together researchers and practitioners to discuss public opinion research topics, methodologies, and findings.
• Regional and Thematic Conferences Regional conferences held at locations worldwide covering topics such as trust and political culture, digitization and big data, questionnaire design, polarization, and comparative research.
• WAPOR Training Workshops Skills-based 180-minute training sessions in public opinion research methodology, run concurrently with annual conferences covering survey design, data collection, data analysis, and emerging methodological developments.
• WAPOR Webinars Online seminar series covering survey methods, COVID-19 research, and emerging methodological developments in public opinion research, with archives dating back to 2020.
• Global Report on Important Topics (GRIT) Comparative global research initiative generating datasets through collaboration with members and partner networks, currently focused on migration topics, with results presented at annual conferences.

Quantifiable outcome

• Network spans 102 countries through National Representatives
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

19 partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerWAPOR collaborates with AAPOR on international efforts including training journalists interested in understanding and reporting on public opinion research, and a joint committee examining methodology of comparative surveys. Joint award: Janet A. Harkness Award for multi-national/multi-cultural/multi-lingual survey research.
• ESOMARcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerWith AAPOR and ESOMAR, WAPOR has collaborated on an international effort to train journalists interested in understanding and reporting on public opinion research. WAPOR and ESOMAR conducted an update of the survey on the Right to Publish Public Opinion Polls.
• Roper CenterminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe full GRIT (Global Report on Important Topics) dataset is planned for public release through the Roper Center, with citation to contributors.
• Boston University (College of Communication)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerHost of WAPOR 66th Annual Conference in 2013 at the Photonics Center on Boston University's campus. The WAPOR co-chairs are affiliated with the College of Communication.
• Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia (UIII)minorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerHost of WAPOR Asia Pacific 9th Annual Conference (27-29 July 2026) at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Ali Sadikin Building, Jakarta Public Library and HB Jassin Literary Archive Center.
• Marriott Hotel Ikeja LagosminorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerVenue host for WAPOR Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Gathering in Lagos, Nigeria (13-14 May 2026).
• NielsenminorOthersPlatinum sponsor of WAPOR 68th Annual Conference in Buenos Aires, June 2015.
• NORC at the University of ChicagominorOthersPlatinum sponsor of WAPOR 68th Annual Conference in Buenos Aires, June 2015. Silver sponsor of WAPOR 70th Annual Conference in Lisbon, 2017.
• Social and Economic Survey Research Institute (SESRI) at Qatar UniversityminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerHost of WAPOR 2015 Regional Conference in Doha, Qatar (March 7-9, 2015), the first WAPOR conference in the Middle East. SESRI is a Gold sponsor of WAPOR 68th Annual Conference and sponsor of WAPOR 70th Annual Conference.
• Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero (UNTREF)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-host of WAPOR 68th Annual Conference in Buenos Aires, June 2015. UNTREF lent premises of Centro Cultural Borges for the conference.
• Arab BarometerminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerInternational survey research network that collaborates with WAPOR. Arab Barometer findings are presented at WAPOR conferences.
• World Values SurveyminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerInternational survey research network that collaborates with WAPOR. World Values Survey findings are presented at WAPOR conferences.
• Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborated with WAPOR on the 2016 Regional Conference in Barcelona on Political Trust, along with Research and Expertise Center in Survey Methodology (RECSM).
• Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo LeónminorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerHost of VII WAPOR Latin American Conference (October 12-14, 2016) at the Faculty of Political Science and Public Administration in Monterrey, Mexico.
• Laboratory for Comparative Social Research (LCSR) at Higher School of Economics (HSE)minorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerHost of WAPOR 2016 Regional Conference in Moscow, Russia (September 15-17, 2016) on Survey Research and Social and Cultural Change.
• Social Weather Stations (SWS)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPhilippine social research organization. Co-host of WAPOR Asia 4th Annual Conference (September 2021) in Manila. Presented research on exit polls and comparative public opinion at WAPOR Asia inaugural conference.
• CVoter FoundationminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerIndian polling agency. Co-host of WAPOR Asia 2nd Annual Conference (September 2019) in New Delhi. Vice President of WAPOR Asia (Yashwant Deshmukh) is from CVoter Foundation.
• International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM)minorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerCo-host of WAPOR Asia 3rd Annual Conference (September 2020) in Kuala Lumpur.
• International Science CouncilminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerWAPOR has a page in the Resource Library for International Science Council (formed from merger of ICSU and ISSC), connecting public opinion research to broader scientific community.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves9 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Insights Association: US trade association for the insights and analytics industry (formerly CASRO). Comparable as a membership-based organization serving market and opinion researchers, with overlapping member base in survey methodology and analytics.
• ESOMAR: Global professional association for market, social, and opinion research. Directly comparable as a global membership body setting industry standards, publishing guidelines (jointly with WAPOR), and convening international events — with a broader commercial-research remit than WAPOR.
• American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR): The premier US-based professional association for public opinion and survey research. Directly comparable to WAPOR in mission (methodology standards, ethics, journal publication, annual conference) and core membership (academic and applied researchers), though primarily focused on the US rather than global.

Broad incumbents

• Pew Research Center: Major US-based nonpartisan public opinion and demography research institution. Comparable in substantive focus (public opinion polling methodology) but is a much larger research-producing entity rather than a membership association.

Others

• European Social Survey (ESS): Academically driven cross-national survey infrastructure for Europe. Comparable as a research-community convener that collaborates with WAPOR, but structured as an academic consortium rather than an individual-membership professional association.
• World Values Survey: Global network conducting cross-national surveys on values and beliefs. Comparable as a longstanding international research network whose findings are regularly presented at WAPOR conferences, though it is a research program rather than an association.

Regional players

• The Research Society: Australia's professional association for market and social research. Comparable peer in structure (membership tiers, training, code of professional behavior, annual conference) but serving the Australian and New Zealand research community specifically.
• Market Research Society (MRS): UK-based professional body for market, social, and opinion researchers. Operates as a direct functional peer to WAPOR (membership, training, standards, certification) but is geographically anchored to the UK rather than global.

Emerging players

• Latinobarómetro: Latin American public opinion research organization that has co-hosted WAPOR regional conferences. Comparable as a regional applied-research network focused on survey methodology and democratic opinion research in Latin America.
• Arab Barometer: Regional nonpartisan research network conducting public opinion surveys across the Arab world. Comparable as a WAPOR-aligned research community advancing methodology in a specific region, with active conference collaboration.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/WAPOR
• Facebookfacebook.com/WAPOR
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/wapor

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles10 records

Subsidiaries4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about WAPOR