What are the purposes of public opinion polls?

The main purpose of public opinion polls is the analysis of opinions on a given issue within a given population. Other purposes of public opinion polls may be to educate, inform and entertain.

One of the most important uses of public opinion polls is during elections, when they may constitute one of the most objective and systematic sources of information regarding politics. Opinion polls may be conducted in person or via telecommunication means, such as email, social media or telephone. Public opinion polls may not be completely representative of a given sample, mainly because of a non-response bias, which means some people refuse to answer a poll.