Letter from WAPOR President (December 2025)

Dear WAPOR Members,

As the year comes to a close, I would like to take a moment to share with you several important updates and developments from across the WAPOR community.

As of December 9, 2025, WAPOR has 746 members representing 94 countries and societies worldwide. This includes individual, student, retired, and organizational members from every continent, reflecting the truly global nature of our association. We thank you for your continued engagement and encourage all members to renew their membership now for 2026. Renewals ensure the sustainability of our shared mission and allow us to support research, events, and collaborative activities in the year ahead.

In November, we held our Council elections for the 2026–2027 term. I am pleased to report that the elections were conducted successfully with the support of an independent online voting platform. The turnout reached 34.31% of eligible members. As a result of this process, Paulina Tabery was elected Secretary-Treasurer, Chase Harrison was elected Chair of the Liaison Committee, Constanza Cilley was elected Chair of the Membership Committee, and Rico Neumann was re-elected Chair of the Publications Committee. I would like to warmly congratulate all newly elected colleagues and thank all candidates for their willingness to serve. We are grateful to everyone who participated in the election process and contributed to the democratic life of our organization.

I would also like to thank the colleagues, who have served during 2025 in the four elected Council positions that were contested in this year’s election. My sincere appreciation goes to Yulia Baskakova, who served as Secretary‑Treasurer; Rosario Aguilar, who served as Chair of the Liaison Committee; Hayk Gyuzalyan, who served as Chair of the Membership Committee. I thank each of them for their dedication, collegiality, and valued contributions to WAPOR over the past year.

I would also like to highlight that our most recent Spotlight Interview was published in November. This edition of the Spotlight Interview features Linda Luz Guerrero, the current President of WAPOR Asia Pacific, and Jibum Kim, Past President, who reflect on the chapter’s development since its founding and share insights into the eighth annual WAPOR Asia Pacific conference in Tokyo in 2025. The full interview is available here.

In addition, we are pleased to announce that the Call for Papers is now open for a special issue of the International Journal of Public Opinion Research (IJPOR), entitled “AI, Public Opinion, and Democratic Resilience”. This special issue seeks to explore the complex intersections between artificial intelligence, political communication, and public opinion formation, and we invite theoretical and empirical contributions from across disciplines. Full details and submission guidelines are available here: https://wapor.org/call-for-papers-ai-public-opinion-and-democratic-resilience-special-issue-at-ijpor/.

We are also currently seeking to fill a number of national representative positions for the 2026–2027 term. National representatives play an important role in connecting WAPOR with local research communities and advancing the visibility of public opinion research in their respective countries. We invite expressions of interest from members in the following countries: Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Croatia, Denmark, Djibouti, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, Gabon, Gambia, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Norway, Oman, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Qatar, Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Switzerland, Tanzania, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Applications can be submitted by December 31, 2025. More information on responsibilities and the application process can be found here.

The Global Report on Important Topics (GRIT), coordinated by Colin Irwin and Pablo Paras, is going global. The Gallup International Association have generously agreed to run two of the Migration questions in their End of Year poll to give us a truly global sample. Additionally WAPOR members will be running the 5 core questions, and other optional questions, from 8 countries in the Americas, 11 in Asia, 11 in Europe, 7 in Africa and 1 in Oceania. All participants will have access to all the data when it is made publicly available so even if you only run the 5 core questions you will be able to put your study in a global context. As all the results will be presented at our Annual Conference in Mexico City in late October we have extended the deadline for data collection to the end of April. So please do join this global project. All the information you need can be found on the WAPOR GRIT page here. And if you have any questions please do contact Colin or Pablo here: colin.irwin@liverpool.ac.uk and pp@dataopm.net.

We are also pleased to confirm that the 2026 WAPOR Annual Conference will take place in Mexico in late October 2026. Final details, including the exact dates and venue, are currently being confirmed in collaboration with the local organizing partners. The Call for Papers is scheduled to open in mid-January 2026, and we look forward to welcoming proposals from across our global membership. Further information will be shared on the WAPOR website and through our mailing list in the coming weeks.

Looking further ahead, I am very pleased to share that WAPOR will hold its 2027 Annual Conference jointly with the European Survey Research Association (ESRA) in Paris, France. The joint event will take place at Campus Condorcet, one of Europe’s premier research campuses for the social sciences and humanities. Please save the dates: the WAPOR Conference will be held from 19 to 22 July 2027.

As always, thank you for your continued support of WAPOR. I look forward to working together with all of in 2026 as we continue to strengthen the global public opinion research community.

With best wishes for the holiday season and the new year ahead,

Prof. Dr. Christian W. Haerpfer

WAPOR President