Southerners tend to slip through the cracks between state
surveys, which are unreliable for generalizing to the region, on
the one hand, and national sample surveys, which usually contain
too few Southerners to allow detailed examination, on the other.
Moreover, few surveys routinely include questions specifically
about the South. To remedy this situation, the Odum Institute
for Research in Social Science and the Center for the Study of
the American South sponsor a Southern regional survey, called
the Southern Focus Poll. Respondents in both the South and Non-
South are asked questions about economic conditions in their
communities; cultural issues, (such as Southern accent and the
Confederate flag), race relations, religious involvement, and
characteristics of Southerners and Northerners. All of the data
sets from the Southern Focus Polls archived here are generously
made available by the Odum Institute for Research in Social
Science of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
(IRSS). - Data File - Cas