# YouGov
**YouGov** is a British online market-research and data-analytics company, founded in 1999–2000 by Stephan Shakespeare and [Nadhim Zahawi](https://www.edgepedia.org/nadhim-zahawi), that runs a large survey panel and is known for its opinion polling and its constituency-level election models.[1](https://moneyweek.com/31599/the-fight-that-led-to-the-creation-of-yougov-13827) It began conducting online surveys in the UK in 2000, expanded to the United States in 2006, and now surveys in over 50 countries.[2](https://yougov.com/about/methodology) The company has been listed on London's AIM market since 2005.[1](https://moneyweek.com/31599/the-fight-that-led-to-the-creation-of-yougov-13827)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1999–2000 by Stephan Shakespeare and Nadhim Zahawi with £300,000 from angel investors, after both worked on Jeffrey Archer's London mayoral campaign[1](https://moneyweek.com/31599/the-fight-that-led-to-the-creation-of-yougov-13827) |
| Panel size | 34 million registered panellists at 31 January 2026, including 3.3 million in the UK and 12.9 million in the Americas[3](https://corporate.yougov.com/documents/499/YouGov_Half_Year_FY26_Results_Announcement_Final_002.pdf) |
| FY25 revenue | £388.9m, up 16% reported but only 1% underlying; adjusted operating profit £60.7m at a 16% margin[4](https://www.lse.co.uk/rns/results-for-the-year-ended-31-july-2025-74n0ilapwfcbfin.html) |
| 2024 election | Its MRP model called 92% of constituencies correctly, the most accurate published MRP, with an average error of 1.4% on party vote shares[5](https://yougov.com/en-gb/articles/51186-a-summary-of-yougovs-review-into-our-2024-general-election-performance) |
| CPS acquisition | Bought CPS, a European household purchase-data company, for a headline price of €315m in January 2024; rebranded YouGov Shopper[6](https://corporate.yougov.com/documents/417/YouGov_Audited_FY24_Results_Announcement_06.11.24.pdf) |
| Market position | Estimated total addressable market of about $54 billion, in which YouGov holds a 0.7% share; politics is about 5% of revenue[7](https://www.roic.ai/quote/YUGVF/transcripts/2024-year/4-quarter) |
| Method | Nonprobability online panel with "active sampling" and statistical weighting by age, gender, social class, region, and education[2](https://yougov.com/about/methodology) |
## What YouGov is
The company was created by two people who had met on [Jeffrey Archer](https://www.edgepedia.org/jeffrey-archer)'s 1990s London mayoral campaign team and were frustrated that poll results took so long to produce. Armed with £300,000 from angel investors, they set out to compile representative samples of people over the internet who could be contacted at a moment's notice for an instant response.[1](https://moneyweek.com/31599/the-fight-that-led-to-the-creation-of-yougov-13827) An early validation came at the 2001 general election, when YouGov predicted a ten-point Labour win; Labour in fact won by 9.1%.[1](https://moneyweek.com/31599/the-fight-that-led-to-the-creation-of-yougov-13827)
The business grew quickly. It hit £2 million of turnover in 2004 and went public in 2005; by October 2008 its market capitalization was £50 million, and a 2007 profile reported shares up sixfold since the float, a £130 million valuation on sales below £10 million, with Zahawi owning £25 million of that.[1](https://moneyweek.com/31599/the-fight-that-led-to-the-creation-of-yougov-13827) • [8](https://spectator.com/article/pollster-with-an-eye-for-business/) Ahead of the 2010 general election YouGov entered an exclusive contract to provide political polls to [The Times](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-times), which helped make its name for corporate market research.[9](https://www.wired.com/story/yougov-general-election-poll-mrp/)
## How the business works
**The panel.** YouGov surveys people online through a panel that uses what the company calls nonprobability sampling: members opt in rather than being drawn randomly from the population. For the overwhelming majority of its commercial work it uses "active sampling", inviting only selected panel members so that a respondent can answer each survey only once. Results are weighted by age, gender, social class, region, and level of education to match the national adult profile.[2](https://yougov.com/about/methodology) General population surveys typically target 1,000 to 2,000 respondents, fielded over one to five days and usually completed in under 20 minutes.[2](https://yougov.com/about/methodology) Panellists are paid in points, receiving around 50 points per daily poll, cashable at 5,000 points for £50.[9](https://www.wired.com/story/yougov-general-election-poll-mrp/) In one study, YouGov's US sample of 1,000 respondents was drawn by a two-stage process: a stratified sample from a synthetic sampling frame built from sources including the [American Community Survey](https://www.edgepedia.org/american-community-survey), voter files, and the 2020 Cooperative Election Study, followed by proximity matching of panellists.[10](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11292-025-09701-9)
**Revenue divisions.** The company reports through three main divisions. Research, the traditional commissioned-survey business, grew 3% reported and 5% underlying to £177.7m in FY24; a little over 40% of its revenue is recurring.[6](https://corporate.yougov.com/documents/417/YouGov_Audited_FY24_Results_Announcement_06.11.24.pdf) • [7](https://www.roic.ai/quote/YUGVF/transcripts/2024-year/4-quarter) Data Products, which includes the BrandIndex brand-tracking service, saw adjusted operating profit fall 26% to £27.4m in FY24, cutting the division's margin to 33% from 43%.[6](https://corporate.yougov.com/documents/417/YouGov_Audited_FY24_Results_Announcement_06.11.24.pdf) The third division, YouGov Shopper, came with the CPS acquisition: in its first full year under YouGov ownership it contributed £128.1m of revenue and £27.2m of adjusted operating profit at a 21% margin across 17 European countries.[4](https://www.lse.co.uk/rns/results-for-the-year-ended-31-july-2025-74n0ilapwfcbfin.html) Political polling is a small slice of the business: in 2007 it provided less than 5% of profits, and management put politics at about 5% of revenues in 2024, while noting it is a significant driver of reputation and panel recruitment.[8](https://spectator.com/article/pollster-with-an-eye-for-business/) • [7](https://www.roic.ai/quote/YUGVF/transcripts/2024-year/4-quarter)
## MRP and election polling
**What MRP is.** MRP (multilevel regression and post-stratification) trains a statistical model on large numbers of panel interviews, applies it to the entire voter file, and post-stratifies in three stages: estimating the likelihood of voting, then the probability of voting for a candidate conditional on voting, and finally predicting support for each candidate.[2](https://yougov.com/about/methodology) YouGov's 2024 large MRP models used samples of between 39,979 and 58,875 respondents to produce vote-intention estimates for each seat in Great Britain.[11](https://ygo-assets-websites-editorial-emea.yougov.net/documents/Election_Polling_2024_-_FINAL.pdf) The company's political operation is small for its reach: 15 people across 38 countries, feeding results into an infrastructure called The Cube, and collecting roughly 10,000 interviews every day during campaign polling.[9](https://www.wired.com/story/yougov-general-election-poll-mrp/)
**Why it became influential.** MRP had rarely been used for political polls in the UK until YouGov adopted it, with mixed-to-good results, to forecast the Brexit referendum in 2016. In 2017 it correctly predicted a hung parliament when most pollsters projected a large Conservative majority.[9](https://www.wired.com/story/yougov-general-election-poll-mrp/) At the 2024 general election, YouGov dropped its traditional voting-intention method on 5 June in favor of a small MRP model, which proved substantially more accurate than the old method would have been.[11](https://ygo-assets-websites-editorial-emea.yougov.net/documents/Election_Polling_2024_-_FINAL.pdf) The final seat projection called 92% of constituencies correctly, the most accurate of the MRP polls and marginally more accurate than the BBC/ITN/Sky exit poll; on national vote shares it was second most accurate of all final polls and MRPs, with an average error of 1.4% on party shares.[5](https://yougov.com/en-gb/articles/51186-a-summary-of-yougovs-review-into-our-2024-general-election-performance) • [11](https://ygo-assets-websites-editorial-emea.yougov.net/documents/Election_Polling_2024_-_FINAL.pdf)
## By the numbers
The financial trajectory since the CPS acquisition shows a business absorbing a large deal while underlying growth slowed. FY24 revenue grew 30% reported to £335.3m, but underlying growth was 3%; adjusted operating profit rose 1% to £49.6m at a 15% margin, down from 19.0% in FY23. Statutory operating profit fell to £10.9m from £44.4m after £38.7m of exceptional costs largely related to the CPS acquisition, and statutory profit before tax fell 91% to £4.0m.[6](https://corporate.yougov.com/documents/417/YouGov_Audited_FY24_Results_Announcement_06.11.24.pdf) • [12](https://www.investegate.co.uk/announcement/rns/yougov--you/preliminary-full-year-results/8515161) Cash conversion fell from 94% to 70% of adjusted EBITDA, and investment in panel recruitment rose to £11.2m from £7.3m.[12](https://www.investegate.co.uk/announcement/rns/yougov--you/preliminary-full-year-results/8515161)
FY25 brought a partial recovery: revenue of £388.9m (16% reported, 1% underlying), adjusted operating profit up 22% to £60.7m at a 16% margin, and statutory operating profit of £31.4m, achieved during what the company described as a period of organisational change and leadership transition.[4](https://www.lse.co.uk/rns/results-for-the-year-ended-31-july-2025-74n0ilapwfcbfin.html) In the first half of FY26, group revenue rose 2% reported to £194.8m while adjusted operating profit fell to £24.0m, a 12.3% margin against 15.7% a year earlier.[3](https://corporate.yougov.com/documents/499/YouGov_Half_Year_FY26_Results_Announcement_Final_002.pdf) The CPS deal was funded through a net drawdown of £224.2m in bank loans plus existing cash, aided by a £49.8m equity placing completed in July 2023; net debt at 31 July 2024 was £148.2m, a leverage ratio of 1.7x excluding IFRS 16.[6](https://corporate.yougov.com/documents/417/YouGov_Audited_FY24_Results_Announcement_06.11.24.pdf) • [12](https://www.investegate.co.uk/announcement/rns/yougov--you/preliminary-full-year-results/8515161)
The panel itself has grown steadily: 29.10 million registered panellists at 31 July 2024 (up 13%, including 3.11m in the UK), 32 million at 31 July 2025, and 34 million at 31 January 2026.[6](https://corporate.yougov.com/documents/417/YouGov_Audited_FY24_Results_Announcement_06.11.24.pdf) • [4](https://www.lse.co.uk/rns/results-for-the-year-ended-31-july-2025-74n0ilapwfcbfin.html) • [3](https://corporate.yougov.com/documents/499/YouGov_Half_Year_FY26_Results_Announcement_Final_002.pdf)
## How it compares with rivals
YouGov positions itself in a large but fragmented industry. Management estimates the total addressable part of the market research market at around $54 billion, within which YouGov holds a 0.7% share; the global sector recorded growth of 5% in 2023, with some of the largest players recording year-on-year declines while YouGov reported 3% underlying growth.[7](https://www.roic.ai/quote/YUGVF/transcripts/2024-year/4-quarter) • [12](https://www.investegate.co.uk/announcement/rns/yougov--you/preliminary-full-year-results/8515161) In Data Products, the competitors the company names are Morning Consult, GWI, and MRI-Simmons.[7](https://www.roic.ai/quote/YUGVF/transcripts/2024-year/4-quarter) Its BrandIndex service tracks more than 27,000 brands daily across 56 markets, with no published pricing; a third-party comparison estimates buyers typically pay a median of $75,000 annually, in a range of $23,400 to $129,517.[13](https://listenlabs.com/articles/morning-consult-vs-yougov-brandindex/)
## Recent developments
**The CPS deal and its costs.** January 2024 brought the acquisition of CPS, described as the European leader in household purchase data across 18 countries, for a headline price of €315m; CPS contributed £74.2m of revenue and £19.7m of adjusted operating profit in the remainder of FY24.[6](https://corporate.yougov.com/documents/417/YouGov_Audited_FY24_Results_Announcement_06.11.24.pdf) The debt funding left the company leveraged, and in June 2024 it cut guidance. On 6 August 2024 it guided FY24 revenue to approximately £327–330m and adjusted operating profit to £43–46m, slightly ahead of the revised June guidance. The cost optimization plan targeted £20m of annualised savings, with about 70% realized in FY25.[14](https://www.stockopedia.com/share-prices/you-gov-LON:YOU/news/reg-you-gov-plc-full-year-trading-update-urn:newsml:reuters.com:20240806:nRSF2677Za/) • [6](https://corporate.yougov.com/documents/417/YouGov_Audited_FY24_Results_Announcement_06.11.24.pdf)
**Product and portfolio moves.** In August 2024 YouGov announced the acquisition of Yabble, a New Zealand generative-AI audience insights company, and appointed Marc Ryan as Chief Product Officer from September 2024; the Yabble acquisition caused a £3.3m loss contribution in Data Products in FY25.[14](https://www.stockopedia.com/share-prices/you-gov-LON:YOU/news/reg-you-gov-plc-full-year-trading-update-urn:newsml:reuters.com:20240806:nRSF2677Za/) • [4](https://www.lse.co.uk/rns/results-for-the-year-ended-31-july-2025-74n0ilapwfcbfin.html) In the first half of FY26 the Board commenced a strategic review of the Shopper division, which may include a potential disposal, to unlock long-term shareholder value.[3](https://corporate.yougov.com/documents/499/YouGov_Half_Year_FY26_Results_Announcement_Final_002.pdf) The company also launched BrandIndex Voices in February 2026, an always-on AI-powered qualitative interviewing add-on.[3](https://corporate.yougov.com/documents/499/YouGov_Half_Year_FY26_Results_Announcement_Final_002.pdf)
**Method changes after the 2024 election.** YouGov committed to separately modeling voters of Indian ethnicity and Pakistani or Bangladeshi ethnicity, and to basing turnout purely on demographics rather than self-reported likelihood to vote; it also recommended replacing Social Grade weighting (the traditional "ABC1C2DE" breakdown) with the ONS NS-SEC categorization.[5](https://yougov.com/en-gb/articles/51186-a-summary-of-yougovs-review-into-our-2024-general-election-performance) • [11](https://ygo-assets-websites-editorial-emea.yougov.net/documents/Election_Polling_2024_-_FINAL.pdf)
## References
1. [The fight that led to the creation of YouGov, Money Week](https://moneyweek.com/31599/the-fight-that-led-to-the-creation-of-yougov-13827)
2. [YouGov Methodology](https://yougov.com/about/methodology)
3. [YouGov plc Results for the six months ended 31 January 2026](https://corporate.yougov.com/documents/499/YouGov_Half_Year_FY26_Results_Announcement_Final_002.pdf)
4. [YouGov Results for the year ended 31 July 2025, Regulatory News](https://www.lse.co.uk/rns/results-for-the-year-ended-31-july-2025-74n0ilapwfcbfin.html)
5. [A summary of YouGov's review into our 2024 general election performance](https://yougov.com/en-gb/articles/51186-a-summary-of-yougovs-review-into-our-2024-general-election-performance)
6. [YouGov plc Full Year Results for the year ended 31 July 2024](https://corporate.yougov.com/documents/417/YouGov_Audited_FY24_Results_Announcement_06.11.24.pdf)
7. [YouGov plc Q4 FY2024 Earnings Call Transcript, roic.ai](https://www.roic.ai/quote/YUGVF/transcripts/2024-year/4-quarter)
8. [Pollster with an eye for business, The Spectator](https://spectator.com/article/pollster-with-an-eye-for-business/)
9. [How YouGov became the UK's best but most controversial pollster, Wired](https://www.wired.com/story/yougov-general-election-poll-mrp/)
10. [Comparability of YouGov and Qualtrics samples in survey experiments, Journal of Experimental Criminology](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11292-025-09701-9)
11. [YouGov Polling at the 2024 Election (post-election methodology paper)](https://ygo-assets-websites-editorial-emea.yougov.net/documents/Election_Polling_2024_-_FINAL.pdf)
12. [YouGov Preliminary Full Year Results, Investegate RNS](https://www.investegate.co.uk/announcement/rns/yougov--you/preliminary-full-year-results/8515161)
13. [Morning Consult vs YouGov BrandIndex: 2026 Comparison, Listen Labs](https://listenlabs.com/articles/morning-consult-vs-yougov-brandindex/)
14. [YouGov Full-Year Trading Update, 6 August 2024, RNS via Stockopedia](https://www.stockopedia.com/share-prices/you-gov-LON:YOU/news/reg-you-gov-plc-full-year-trading-update-urn:newsml:reuters.com:20240806:nRSF2677Za/)
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*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 10, 2026 · Edited: Oct 10, 2026; Oct 11, 2026; Oct 15, 2026 · Last review: Oct 10, 2026*
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