What is Public Opinion? "Public opinion" is the distribution of opinions and attitudes held by the public. Individuals hold a wide variety of opinions.By measuring these opinions at the individual level and aggregating them, the proportions of the population with particular beliefs and preferences can be determined. When measuring public opinion, pollsters are not only concerned with the content of public opinion, but also with the stability of people 's opinions over time. It is also useful to know how strongly the public holds particular opinions and the direction those opinions seem to be moving. The content, stability, intensity and direction of public opinion are all important indicators of what the public wants and expects out of its government and political leaders. While popular opinion is not the only factor that determines public policy, it is generally the most important one. Measuring Public Opinion Public opinion is not measured by asking every individual in the population questions about his or her opinions.In a nation of for example 270 million people, doing so would be impossible.Instead, pollsters ask a small group of individuals a set of questions and then generalize from their findings about that group to the larger population.Choosing a group of individuals out of a population that is representative of the entire population and then accurately measuring the opinions of those individuals is technical. Developing your opinions about issues affecting the