Who votes
Votes come from visitors to this site and to the widgets we place on our own sites. People decide for themselves whether to take part, so this is not a representative sample or a scientific survey. The results show what the people who voted think, not what everyone thinks.
One vote per device
We remember your vote using a cookie and your browser's storage. If you come back to the page on the same device, you'll see the results instead of the buttons.
We use the IP network only as a warning sign. From any one network we count a limited number of votes per day: 20 for mobile operators (many people often share one) and 5 for other networks. Votes from servers and VPN hosting providers are rejected.
Doubtful votes are stored but not counted in the percentages.
Votes by country
Widgets on our sites are shown according to the visitor's country and language. Anyone can vote on this site itself, and every vote counts towards the percentages. For each vote we store only the country code, so results can be split by country. We work out the country from the IP address using the IP Geolocation by DB-IP database (licensed under CC BY 4.0); the address itself is not stored.
Comparison with proper surveys
Where representative surveys on the same topic exist, we show their findings next to our results, with the organisation's name, the date, the sample size and a link to the source. That way you can see how closely the views of people voting here match those of the population as a whole.
Percentages
Percentages are rounded so that they always add up to 100. “Hard to say” answers are counted too: they show how divisive a question is.
Which questions we choose
We don't publish party-political questions about elections, parties or politicians' ratings. Our polls are about everyday life, habits and day-to-day choices, even when there are laws about them, such as single-use plastic bags.