Gallup Nordic
About Gallup Nordic
Svenska Gallupinstitutet, founded in 1942, is Sweden’s oldest research company.
It was established by Sven O. Blomquist, who had contact with George Gallup and received results from his surveys. Svenska Gallupinstitutet is one of the world’s oldest Gallup companies outside the USA, where George Gallup founded his company, Gallup. George then granted the right to use his name to individuals in various countries to start local Gallup companies. This might be one of the reasons why Gallup has become synonymous with reliable opinion polls. In many countries, it has become a verb describing the methods required to conduct reliable opinion polls.
The CEO at the time of its founding in 1942 was Sten Hultgren, but it was difficult to make the business profitable. By 1953, the company had been acquired by Lennart Åkerhjelm, and the last voter barometer was published in 1954. A.C. Nielsen bought the operational activities, but Svenska Gallupinstitutet was given to the Social Democratic Party as payment for a debt. The institute remained largely dormant until Alf Sjöström discovered this and had the opportunity to buy it.
Alf had just left his position as Deputy CEO at Sifo, and Svenska Gallupinstitutet found new life under his ownership. Together with TV4 and Expressen, they published monthly voter barometers, among other things. Svenska Gallupinstitutet quickly grew under Alf’s ownership and once again became one of Sweden’s most reliable research companies. However, in 2004, the global firm TNS systematically acquired Gallup companies worldwide, leaving Alf with no choice but to sell the company. Alf then started Novus, which published its first voter barometer in 2006, again in collaboration with TV4.
In the possession of TNS, the public Gallup surveys disappeared from Sweden once again. TNS then merged with Kantar in an international structural deal. With this deal, they completely relinquished the company Svenska Gallupinstitutet and Gallup surveys in Sweden. Alf Sjöström once again had the opportunity to acquire Svenska Gallupinstitutet, now named Gallup Nordic, but Svenska Gallupinstitutet remains as a secondary name. However, Gallup Nordic did not immediately become active publicly, as Alf tragically passed away not long after the acquisition, and rebuilding Novus became Torbjörn Sjöström’s primary focus.
Through a merger between Gallup Nordic and Novus’s parent company ALS (Alf and Lena Sjöström) Invest in 2024, Gallup Nordic found a clearer context once again, becoming the parent company to Sweden’s most well-known research firm: Novus.
Gallup Nordic has been Gallup International’s member company in Sweden, since 2022, although much of the work is carried out under the Novus name.
For historical Gallup surveys from 1943 onwards in Sweden, they are published here: Swedish National Data Service (snd.se)
Torbjörn Sjöström är styrelseordförande i Gallup Nordic samt även VD i Novus. Torbjörn är också styrelseledamot i Gallup International.
Gallup Nordic and Novus now coexist in Sweden and the Nordic region, where the operational work is carried out by Novus, but Gallup Nordic is represented in international contexts. The methods used by Novus and Gallup Nordic are of absolute world-class standard, recognized by researchers around the globe. The Gallup method has been modernized and digitized by our method developers. This has led us to train other companies in our methods to help them modernize the reliable Gallup method to keep pace with the rise of mobile phones and, most importantly, the fact that the internet is the primary communication channel.
Gallup Nordic has two registered trademarks.
Image trademark
Gallup Monitor is a registered trademark in the field of opinion surveys.
These trademarks can be used by both Novus and the primary owner, Gallup Nordic.