Roy Morgan Research
Australian polling and market research firm running large longitudinal consumer data panels since 1941.
The call
Roy Morgan's decades of proprietary panel data and government ties keep it standing, but succession and the 2027 Austrade re-tender are the dates that matter.
Roy Morgan Research collects opinions and consumer data for Australian businesses and government agencies. It is hard to replace because it has sixty years of interview records that competitors like Ipsos and Nielsen have never matched, and government agencies depend on its polling for official statistics. The biggest threat to the company is not AI tools making surveys, which cannot recreate real human interviews or historical data that lawmakers trust, but rather what happens when the current owners retire since no clear plan exists for who runs the company next.
Why
01
AI pressure: AI-native synthetic-panel and generative-survey tools. Cheap AI panels could gut commodity dashboard and cross-tab work, but no lab has shipped a tool matching Single Source's longitudinal depth. Could AI do the core job? Unlikely.
02
Bigger players: Ipsos. Ipsos is already bigger in Australia and competes for the same ad-tracking and government contracts Roy Morgan holds. Could a giant copy it? Probably.
03
What protects it. Decades of Single Source longitudinal data plus government contracts like Austrade that reward proven track record over new entrants.
What would change this call
Austrade re-tenders its tourism-statistics contract in 2027-2028. Loss to Ipsos, Nielsen, or Kantar would show government lock-in weakening.
A synthetic-panel or AI-native research startup wins a marquee Australian government or ad-tracking contract. Would show AI-native tools displacing longitudinal human fieldwork.
Gary Morgan or Michele Levine step down without a named successor. Would show succession risk materializing in the founder-family firm.
A synthetic-panel or AI-native research startup wins a marquee Australian government or ad-tracking contract. Would show AI-native tools displacing longitudinal human fieldwork.
Gary Morgan or Michele Levine step down without a named successor. Would show succession risk materializing in the founder-family firm.
Key numbers
- FY2024 revenue A$48.168M
- 60,000+ Single Source interviews per year
- 570 employees Q4 2025, up from 505 in 2023
Named risks
- No visible succession plan for long-tenured Gary Morgan and Michele Levine in family-owned firm.
- Austrade tourism-statistics contract faces re-tender in 2027-2028.
- AI-native synthetic-panel tools could erode commodity dashboard and cross-tab research revenue.
- Multi-mode Single Source methodology change (2025) carries data-quality and cost execution risk.
- Revenue and headcount figures vary widely and are inconsistently reported across third-party data sources.
Rivals, as read in July 2026
| Rival | Direction | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Ipsos | contesting | Cited by industry comparison site as largest research firm in Australia, 2026-03-03 |
| Nielsen | contesting | Global measurement/retail analytics rival; no reported share shift from Roy Morgan |
| Kantar | contesting | Global marketing data and analytics competitor operating in Australia |
| YouGov | contesting | Absorbed Galaxy Research in Australia; competes in online panel polling |
| Newspoll and Essential Research | contesting | Rival political-polling houses competing with Roy Morgan's Morgan Poll |
Questions people ask
- Is Roy Morgan Research profitable?
- IBISWorld reports Roy Morgan Research Ltd's total revenue at A$48.168 million for FY2024, but no public profit margin or net income figure has been disclosed since the firm is privately held and does not publish audited financials externally.
- Could AI replace Roy Morgan Research?
- Unlikely for its core business: Roy Morgan runs 60,000+ human interviews yearly for its Single Source panel and reintroduced face-to-face fieldwork in October 2024 (effective January 2025), betting verified human data beats AI-generated panels; it also launched its own AI tool, WorkSpace Media Allocation Engine, in July 2025.
- Who owns Roy Morgan Research?
- Roy Morgan is a privately held, family-controlled Australian company with no external equity or VC funding reported. Gary Morgan, son of founder Roy Morgan (1908-1985), serves as Executive Chairman, and Michele Levine is CEO, as of 2025.
- Is Ipsos Roy Morgan Research's biggest competitor?
- Industry comparison sites (curiosphere.autarsis.com, March 2026) describe Ipsos Australia as the largest research firm in the country, but this is a vendor-adjacent claim, not audited data. Roy Morgan retains entrenched government and bank contracts (Austrade, ANZ) that Ipsos hasn't displaced.
- What government contracts does Roy Morgan Research hold?
- Roy Morgan won a three-year Austrade contract in February 2024 to supply domestic and international tourism statistics starting 2025, and it continues fieldwork for the Melbourne Institute's HILDA longitudinal survey, reinforcing its government-data lock-in.
- What is Roy Morgan's Single Source data panel?
- Single Source is Roy Morgan's continuous consumer survey collecting over 60,000 Australian interviews annually (as of 2025), combining roughly 2,000 face-to-face, 2,000 phone, and 1,000 online interviews per month since the face-to-face mode returned in January 2025.
Timeline
- 2025-10-07Roy Morgan reports 65% of Australians believe AI creates more problems than it solves
- 2025-07-02Launched AI-powered WorkSpace Media Allocation Engine using 100,000+ consumer profiles
- 2025-06-03Bunnings named most trusted brand for sixth straight quarter in Roy Morgan rankings
- 2025-04-30Partnered with Media Federation of Australia and GroupM ANZ on DE&I survey data
- 2025-01Multi-mode Single Source (face-to-face plus phone plus online) took effect
- 2024-10-30Announced return of face-to-face interviewing to Single Source panel
- 2024-02-20Won three-year Austrade contract for tourism statistics starting 2025
- 1988-10-21Incorporated as Roy Morgan Research Ltd (ABN 91 007 092 944)
- 1941Roy Morgan founded the company in Australia
Revision history
25 July 2026
First assessed. Hard to displace. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.
In the same band
Sources
- Roy Morgan Research Ltd - Company Profile Report
- Roy Morgan Research Number of Employees 2026 (2026-06-29)
- Roy Morgan
- Gender Mortgage Stress Analysis (2025-10-15)
- Roy Morgan wins Austrade contract (2024-02-20)
- Roy Morgan invests in human-centric research (2024-10-30)
- What does a media channel even look like today? (2025-07-02)
- MFA and Roy Morgan join forces (2025-04-30)
- Roy Morgan Update June 3, 2025 (2025-06-03)
- Growing majority of Australians believe AI creates more problems than it solves (2025-10-07)
- Roy Morgan Revenue, Funding & Valuation
- Roy Morgan Research