5 Most Popular Surveys of 2013 – The Hype and Hoopla!

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Yet another year of the new millennium has lurched to a halt and just like the other years that have gone to past, twenty-thirteen too has had its share of up, downs, moments of fiasco, losses, discoveries, innovations and moments of joy and excitement.

Similarly, the year had its share of surveys and researches too that procured the findings that stood out and garnered much interest from the masses from all around the world. Let us take a look into what the top 5 most interesting surveys of 2013 were according to the most trusted of sources of the internet.

Survey #1: The 14th Annual Global Survey of the English Language

Global Language Monitor 14th Annual Global Survey of the English language revealed “404” to be the top word of the year 2013. In case you are wondering what 404 is, it is the universally used jargon for internet failure or, “page not found”. 404 was followed by “Toxic Politics” and “Pope Francis” being the top phrase and name of the year respectively.

“404 has gained enormous attention the world over this year as systems in place since World War II, which many see as the beginning of the contemporary era, are in distress or even failure.” said Paul JJ Payack, President and Chief Word Analyst of the Global Language Monitor.  

Moreover, in the top words’ list, words like fail, hashtag, @pontifex and the Optic followed. The list was later shortlisted to round up the top 10 most popular words which then came down to the words like surveillance, drones, deficit, sequestration and emancipate.

The survey also found out that there has been a marked “growing fascination” for words like Apocalypseand Armageddon that portray the ‘end-of-the-world’ scenariosand doom or are of relevance to the endof life or are used in the sense of impending doom.  

“These included:  Apocalypse, Bak’tun, Frankenstorm, Global Warming/Climate Change, God Particle, Rogue Nukes, Solar Max, Near-Earth Asteroid.”, Global Language Monitor said.

Relating to these doom related words, the Chief Word Analyst cited a few examples too; “Media examples include the Mayan apocalypse frenzy in Russia, the US Presidential elections  (Obamageddon, Romneygeddon),  the threatened dissolution of the common currency in Europe (Eurogeddon), to the call for the United Nations to implement an ‘Armageddon-type’ policy to address previously undetected space rocks hurtling toward Earth.”

Survey #2: The Annual America’s Favorite Cities Survey

The annual America’s Favorite Cities survey asked the participants to assess the 35 major metropolitan areas on the basis of different features like food, people, nightlife, and more and the results proved that the participants made some bold choices this time around. One most effective feature of this survey is the methodology used to construct it. The methodology is pretty much precise and targeted.

The survey found out that Seattle and San Fransico natives were ranked by the population amongst the top 10 most attractive locals. The Travel + Leisure survey also established that the sun tanned locals that hailed from the southern side of the cities like those from southern California did not secure a safe place on the list.

Likewise, the Miami and New York’s northern locals were found to be more aesthetically attractive and were chosen over the southern ones. Also, the party-ready type locals from these cities were overshadowed by the more casual and corny dressing ones.

Survey #3: Poll on Banning Phone Calls During Flight in America

A poll carried out by CrunchGov using Google Surveys inquired the participants whether they agree or not to a supposed ban on calls during flights. The results demonstrated that around half the population of America, 54% of the Americans to be precise, agreed with the ban.

The survey questioned 1,578 American adults that, “Airlines are considering allowing passengers to make phone calls during flights. Some people think in-flight calls should not be permitted. What do you think?” The survey had a margin of error -/+2.5% a reported 53.9% of respondents selected, “Airlines should NOT allow in-flight calls”.

Survey #4: The Joblessness in America Survey

A survey for the year done by Census Gov demonstrated that alarming 4 out of 5 adults in the US fight joblessness and are living close to the poverty lines. The gap between the rich and poor, proves this survey, has been widening.

This survey, however, does not include if it is the laid off/unemployed or the low paid masses that contribute more to these statistics.

Survey #5: NFL’s most disliked players of 2013 Survey

Even though NFL is largely popular and attracts the attention of the football fanatics from all across the globe, there are quite a few NFL players that are just not that taken to by the NFL fans.

E-Poll Market Research, impelled by these inclined preferences of the fans, carried out a survey to find out who the most disliked of NFL players of the year, 2013 were. Not surprisingly enough, Michael Vick from Philadelphia Eagles rose to the top of the dislike list with a dislike score of 53%.

These are some of the surveys that we found to be interesting and being talked about simultaneously. However, this list is not exhaustive and in case you know of a popular survey that we may have missed out here, then feel free to suggest! Also, we are open to comments and discussions on these surveys.