Populus is a market research company in the United Kingdom formed in 2003. Populus co-founded the British Polling Council in 2004 and regularly publishes opinion polls on voting intention and as well as other political and commercial issues. Clients have included national brands such as the AA and Asda, as well as charities like Mind and public sector clients like the British Army.
Populus carry out cold calling to randomly generated UK phone numbers. They state that their 'market research' is not a 'marketing' activity and is therefore not covered by the restrictions imposed by the UK Telephone Preference Service.