Federal obligations in marketing research and public opinion polling (NAICS 541910)

Service-industry obligations of $1.20 billion

Federal agencies buy surveys, audience measurement, and public-opinion research from vendors classified in 541910. USAspending rolls those tagged contracts to $1,198,018,650.50 obligated. That is not a count of questionnaires and not a statement about any election or product. It is the contract-commitment total for this NAICS in the extract.

Professional-services obligations often fund labor over a period of performance. An agency can obligate a research vehicle in one action and receive deliverables across months. The $1,198,018,650.50 is the booked amount on tagged awards, not a cash-outlay scoreboard. Outlay files answer the payment question separately.

1,027 awards and the services mix

One thousand twenty-seven awards against $1,198,018,650.50 averages about $1.17 million per action. That is larger than typical catalog supply orders and smaller than three-award financial codes in this same slice. Research contracts, IDIQ task orders, and evaluation studies all add rows. The average is the ratio of the two packet facts; the industry hub is the distribution.

This file does not name pollsters, agencies, or survey titles because those fields are not in the facts object. Neutral presentation is required: public records of contract obligations, not commentary on polling methods or political content. The 1,027 count is an award count, not a count of published polls.

Boundaries: research versus advertising and consulting

NAICS 541910 is marketing research and public opinion polling. Advertising, public relations, management consulting, and scientific R&D sit in other 54xxxx codes. A communications campaign that includes a small survey may be coded to advertising. A statistical evaluation coded as R&D may miss 541910. The $1,198,018,650.50 follows the 541910 tag, not a searcher’s informal phrase “government polling.”

Assistance awards may not carry NAICS. Academic survey grants and cooperative agreements often live on program pages rather than this industry rollup. If the question is all federally funded survey work, 541910 contracts are only the tagged commercial-research slice.

A complete citation of this industry is $1,198,018,650.50 in USAspending contract obligations tagged to NAICS 541910, marketing research and public opinion polling, on 1,027 awards. Anything less—dropping the NAICS, dropping the word obligations, or dropping the contract-only universe—overstates what the extract contains. The packet facts do not include a fiscal year, so this guide does not invent one. Live tables on the industry hub can move when USAspending posts modifications; the harvested pair remains $1,198,018,650.50 and 1,027.

How to read the 541910 tables

Keep obligations and outlays apart. Keep contracts and assistance apart. Then open the marketing research industry page for the 1,027 actions behind $1,198,018,650.50. The all-industries directory is the hop to neighboring professional-services codes. Source: USAspending.gov contract awards.

Classification errors are expected at the margin. Vendors that straddle advertising agencies, management consulting, and scientific R&D may land in 541910 on some actions and in a neighbor on others. The NAICS measures establishments, not the political content of any questionnaire. The public-record stance is to keep $1,198,018,650.50 attached to 541910 as tagged, then use award descriptions on the 1,027 rows to see evaluation studies versus audience research. Re-tagging the extract by hand is out of scope for this overlay.

What this page will not do

It will not characterize any survey as accurate or biased. It will not invent a fiscal year. It will not turn $1,198,018,650.50 into a per-household figure. The packet supplies two facts; the prose explains NAICS, obligations, and the assistance caveat.

Survey tags are not a verdict on polling methods

Award count interprets the buying pattern. 1,027 actions producing $1,198,018,650.50 is professional-services survey vehicles of mid-to-large size, with about $1.17 million per action as the simple average. That average hides mix: modifications, options, and delivery orders all increment count. 1,027 is not a count of unique companies and not a count of physical units. Use the hub amount sort to see whether a few large rows plus a long tail make up most of the tagged total.

Outlays remain a separate USAspending concept. An agency can obligate $1,198,018,650.50 across 1,027 tagged marketing research and public opinion polling actions and pay on a different calendar. De-obligations after cancellations reduce the obligation ledger; they do not rewrite the fact that this NAICS has been a large tagged category in the harvest. Assistance without NAICS still sits outside even when the real-world activity looks similar. Program pages answer the grant question; this page answers the tagged-contract question.

Internal links on this file point only to the marketing research and public opinion polling industry page and the all-industries directory. Those are the packet hrefs. Neighboring industry codes mentioned in prose are classification context only. Source note, copied from the packet: NAICS from USAspending contract awards. Assistance awards may not carry NAICS. The overlay’s job is to state $1,198,018,650.50, 1,027, the obligation unit, and the boundary around advertising agencies, management consulting, and scientific R&D.

Questions

How much does the federal government obligate on marketing research contracts?

NAICS 541910 shows $1,198,018,650.50 in obligations on 1,027 USAspending contract awards. That covers establishments classified as marketing research and public opinion polling. It is not an outlay total and not a count of polls. Quote it as USAspending contract obligations tagged to NAICS 541910, not as cash outlays. Assistance awards may not carry NAICS, so grants remain outside the 1,027-award extract behind $1,198,018,650.50.

Is this the same as federal advertising spending?

No. Advertising is a different NAICS. This page’s $1,198,018,650.50 is 541910 only. Mixed communications contracts may be tagged elsewhere. Use the industry hub award descriptions to inspect individual actions. The NAICS measures establishments, not the political content of any questionnaire. Keep $1,198,018,650.50 attached to 541910 as tagged on 1,027 actions; do not merge neighbor codes into the same unlabeled cell.

Are university survey grants included in the $1.20 billion?

Generally no. Assistance awards may not carry NAICS, so they fall outside the 1,027-award contract extract. Program and agency pages are the usual place to see grant-funded research. That pattern is professional-services survey vehicles of mid-to-large size, with about $1.17 million per action as the simple average of $1,198,018,650.50 over 1,027 awards. Use award descriptions on the 1,027 rows to see evaluation studies versus audience research.

Where can I see who received the 541910 awards?

On the MARKETING RESEARCH AND PUBLIC OPINION POLLING industry page. This guide cites only the packet totals—$1,198,018,650.50 and 1,027 awards—and does not invent a recipient list. This industry guide covers tagged contracts only: $1,198,018,650.50 obligated on 1,027 marketing research and public opinion polling awards in USAspending. Outlays are a different field; assistance without NAICS is a different award type.