The name Referendum was inspired by Switzerland’s tradition of direct democracy. In the cantons of Glarus and Appenzell Innerrhoden, thousands of citizens still gather once a year for a public assembly known as the Landsgemeinde. People discuss issues that affect their community and vote directly, traditionally by raising their hands. It is one of the oldest surviving forms of direct public participation in decision-making.
Referendum.social was created around a similar principle: give people a clear question, let them express their opinion directly, and make the collective result visible. The name does not imply support for holding political referendums or for any particular political system. It reflects the idea of direct participation and making public opinion easier to see.
The website was created in 2014 as a unique platform fully dedicated to polls, surveys, and public opinion. The creator and founder of this website is Ukrainian. At first, the website was available under a different domain: online-statistic.org.
After the first launch, there were some issues with the website, so the project was postponed for some time. Since the beginning of the war, the website has started to develop actively again. The project has been under development since 2014, with the goal of creating a platform where poll data can be collected, displayed, and made accessible in one place.
We are trying to create a platform where everyone can see public opinion data, participate in polls, and create their own poll if they want. Our goal is to make polls and surveys more open, transparent, and accessible to people around the world.
Now, the website is fully functional. Since 2025, we have reworked the voting system and improved protection against automated voting and bot activity. These changes are designed to make poll participation more reliable and to reduce artificial manipulation of results.
Polls on this website represent the opinions of users who choose to participate. They are not official elections and should not be treated as scientific sociological research unless explicitly stated. However, our long-term goal is to build one of the most transparent and useful public opinion platforms on the internet.
Referendum.social is an independent platform. It is not affiliated with any government, political party, or official election authority.
We allow different opinions, but we do not allow spam, violent content, harmful manipulation, or abusive activity.
Poll results reflect the opinions of participating users and should be understood as public opinion data, not official voting results.
