On the evening of June 24, a magnitude 7.2 foreshock struck north-central Venezuela and, 39 seconds later, a magnitude 7.5 mainshock followed. Both were shallow. The destruction has been concentrated in the northern coastal state of La Guaira and in the capital, Caracas, where La Guaira has been declared a disaster zone. Official figures, which remain the authoritative source for loss of life, ranged, as of June 26, from roughly 188 to 235 dead and more than 4,300 injured, with those numbers expected to rise as search and assessment operations continue.

In the hours that followed, GeoPoll reached households directly through a WhatsApp rapid needs assessment. Between the morning of June 25 and midday June 26, 425 people across the country answered. They told us where the ground shook hardest, what their homes look like now, and what they need to get through the next night.

This is not a story about the whole country. The earthquake was not felt everywhere, and the data makes that clear. It is a story about a band of states along the central coast and capital region where lives were upended, and about the families there who took a moment, in the middle of fear and uncertainty, to tell us what is happening.

Our hearts are with them. The purpose of this assessment is to put an accurate, fast, household-level picture into the hands of the relief and aid organizations responding now, so help reaches the right places without delay.

Why this data matters in this disaster

Two features of this emergency make direct household data unusually valuable.

The first is the clock. Experts widely regard the first 72 hours after a major quake as the most critical window for saving lives, and access to water is often the deciding factor for those still trapped or displaced. In that window, the gap between what responders know and what is actually happening on the ground is where aid is delayed and lives are lost. Relief agencies on the ground, including PAHO and the Red Cross, are still rapidly assessing needs and mapping where to send resources.

Speed of information is itself a form of relief.

The second is the information environment. Disruptions to power and telecommunications, in an already limited information environment, have made it hard for residents and their families abroad to learn what has happened. The United Nations has stressed that timely access to reliable information will be vital to protecting lives in the days ahead. A survey that reaches people directly on the phones already in their hands, and lets them speak for themselves, helps close exactly that gap.

The impact was concentrated, and our data confirms where

The single most important finding is geographic, and it aligns closely with the official picture. When we map self-reported shaking intensity by state, a clear cluster emerges along the north-central coast and capital corridor, the same areas authorities and humanitarian agencies have identified as worst affected.

Felt intensity by state, on a 1 to 10 scale, and the share of respondents who reported violent shaking (8 to 10):

• La Guaira: average 9.2, with all respondents reporting violent shaking
• Capital District (Caracas): average 8.8, 88 percent violent
• Carabobo: average 8.7, 80 percent violent
• Miranda: average 8.4, 80 percent violent
• Aragua: average 8.4, 74 percent violent
• Guárico: average 7.5, 58 percent violent

These six states account for 201 of our 425 responses, roughly 47 percent. La Guaira, which residents rated as the most severe, is the same state where authorities have declared a disaster zone and officials report that more than 70,000 families are affected. Our independent, household-level data points to the same epicenter of suffering.

Outside this band, the picture changes sharply. States such as Zulia (average 2.4), Táchira (2.1), Nueva Esparta (2.4), and Mérida (3.3) reported little more than a tremor. This contrast is the actionable part: the need is not spread thinly across Venezuela, it is concentrated, and resources directed to the central coast and capital region will reach the people in crisis.

Inside the impact zone: what households are facing

Within those six states, the difference from the rest of the country is stark across every indicator we measured. This is the texture inside the aggregate official totals: not how many families were affected, but what those families are living through tonight.

Homes are damaged. In the impact zone, 99 households reported minor damage and 10 reported severe, unsafe, or destroyed homes, including one home completely destroyed in La Guaira. Across the rest of the country combined, only 2 households reported severe damage.

Families are displaced. In the impact zone, 41 respondents said they will not sleep in their own home. Of those, 22 are staying with relatives or neighbors, 11 are sleeping outdoors or in the street, and others are in shelters or do not yet know where they will sleep. This mirrors what responders are seeing in Caracas and La Guaira, where many residents are spending nights outside, afraid that weakened buildings could collapse in an aftershock.

Water is the most acute shortage. In the impact zone, 19 households reported no drinking water at all and 64 more reported only limited water. Caracas alone accounts for 10 of the households with no water and 23 with limited supply. With water widely identified as the deciding factor for survival in this window, this is among the most urgent signals in the data.

Food and power are strained. 87 households in the impact zone reported limited food and 11 reported none. On electricity, 47 reported intermittent power and 9 reported none.

People are cut off. In the impact zone, 67 respondents could reach only some of their family and friends, and 3 could reach none. Roads are blocked or partially blocked for 18 respondents, slowing both escape and the arrival of help. Hospitals were reported damaged, closed, or unreachable by 14 respondents, at a time when health facilities are already operating under mass casualty protocols.

The human toll, in the words of those reporting it

We are intentionally not publishing our own casualty figures. Official numbers exist and should remain the reference for loss of life.

What we can responsibly share is how many people, in their own homes, reported these emergencies. Each number below is a household that reached out:

• 10 respondents in the impact zone reported someone trapped in a building, across La Guaira, Caracas, Carabobo, Aragua, and Miranda. No respondent outside the impact zone reported anyone trapped.
• 10 respondents reported injuries in their household, one of them flagging an urgent, life-threatening medical need.
• 8 respondents reported a family member missing.
• 8 respondents reported a gas leak or fire risk near their home, a danger that compounds in the hours after a quake.

Behind each of these is a voice. One respondent in Caracas, sleeping outdoors after their home was damaged, wrote only that they need “un hogar,” a home. A mother in Caracas wrote that her son is in La Guaira and she has not been able to reach him since 11 that morning. In La Guaira, where a home was completely destroyed, a respondent now in a public shelter asked for one thing: “hogar.” Others, even those displaced to relatives’ homes, asked first for water and food, and several asked for psychological support and simply for calm: “tranquilidad, estamos muy nerviosos.”

What people are asking for

When we asked what information households need most but cannot get, the answer in the impact zone was overwhelming: 127 respondents want aftershock and safety updates. Another 17 want to know whether it is safe to return home, 10 need to know how to get medical help, 10 are trying to locate missing family, and 8 are looking for shelter.

This is the information gap made concrete. In an environment where reliable updates are hard to come by, people are not only short on water and shelter, they are short on the knowledge they need to stay safe and make decisions. The most requested immediate needs in open responses were consistent and basic: water, food, shelter, and reassurance. These match the priorities relief actors have named, from the Red Cross call for emergency shelter and trauma care to the government distribution of drinking water, food, mattresses, and blankets. They are needs a coordinated relief effort can meet quickly if directed to the right places.

Why speed and precision matter now

This assessment was completed in under 28 hours, with responses arriving from the morning of June 25 through midday June 26. That speed is the point. The data here narrows the gap between what responders know and what is happening on the ground, and it does so through the voices of the people living it.

It shows where the earthquake hit hardest, confirming the official focus on La Guaira and Caracas, and it adds resolution inside those areas: water and shelter for the central coast and capital region, medical outreach where hospitals are compromised, family-tracing support for those still searching, and trusted safety information for communities bracing for aftershocks.

We are sharing this assessment, and the live dashboard (with near-realtime numbers since the survey is still in the field) alongside it, openly with the relief and aid community. The dashboard lets responders filter by state and explore each indicator in detail, and it continues to update as more responses arrive.

To the families across La Guaira, Caracas, Carabobo, Aragua, Miranda, and Guárico who answered while living through this: thank you. Your voices are now part of the effort to bring help to your communities.

This rapid needs assessment was conducted by GeoPoll via WhatsApp survey. Figures reflect 425 completed responses collected June 25 to June 26, 2026, and represent an early-stage, unweighted sample of self-reported conditions. They are intended to guide and accelerate humanitarian response and to complement, not replace, official damage and casualty figures, which remain the authoritative source for loss of life. Responses were collected anonymously, and quotes are published without identifying information.

For more information:

GeoPoll specializes in reaching people that other data collection methods miss, gathering direct household input from hard-to-reach and crisis-affected populations across emerging markets, fast.

If your organization is responding to this earthquake, we want this data in your hands, and we are ready to help you use it. The full, updated dataset will remain ready and available, and our team can break it down by state, indicator, or population group to match what your response needs. We can also field follow-up questions to the same households or launch a new rapid assessment within hours, so your decisions stay grounded in what people on the ground are reporting.

Reach out to the GeoPoll team to access the data, request a custom cut, or set up a briefing.

The post Report – Inside the First Hours After the Venezuela Earthquake appeared first on GeoPoll.

Representative AI requires something different. It demands that models hear the breadth of human experience and language variation, not just the loudest or most connected groups. That begins with representative data. For decades, survey science has developed the tools to measure populations accurately through sampling, stratification, and weighting. Unlike scraped web data, which reflects who chooses to publish, survey research ensures inclusion of those who might otherwise be invisible.

This is where GeoPoll’s work is unique. We operate primarily in low-income countries across Africa, Latin America, and Asia. These regions are systematically underrepresented in global datasets. Our surveys reach communities that are often excluded from the digital traces AI relies on. Beyond geography, our sampling design incorporates income and education as core criteria, ensuring that the perspectives of low-income and less-educated populations are captured alongside those of more affluent groups. This intentional inclusion is critical because these voices are most often absent from the data that feeds AI systems.

Representative Survey Research Data for AI

Our approach is grounded in scale and depth. Every year, we conduct hundreds of thousands of telephone-based interviews that extend into rural villages, low-connectivity areas, and places where literacy rates are low and internet access is scarce. These conversations are live and unscripted, capturing how people actually communicate with the slang, cadence, accents, and evolving language that web-based datasets overlook. The result is a corpus of representative audio that reflects the daily realities of underserved populations.

This data has unique value for AI training. Unlike scripted phrases or synthetic samples, GeoPoll’s representative audio captures natural variation across cultures and regions. When used to train or fine-tune models, it consistently outperforms curated voice datasets because it is drawn from the real world rather than produced in a studio. It gives models the ability to recognize speech patterns as they exist in daily life, not as they appear in filtered or idealized forms.

Contrast this with the risks in today’s AI pipelines. Web-scraped data carries selection bias, temporal bias, and cultural bias. It reflects what gets published, not how people live and speak. Models then amplify those distortions, producing outputs that misinterpret slang, misrecognize dialects, or stereotype entire groups. Left unchecked, these gaps compound and erode trust in AI systems, hindering emerging market adoption widening the divide.

The science of sampling provides the corrective. By embedding representative data into AI pipelines, researchers can fill blind spots and build systems that perform consistently across diverse populations. This approach also provides a benchmark: survey data can test model outputs, reveal where failures occur, and guide targeted fine-tuning. It creates a feedback loop where AI evolves alongside the societies it is meant to serve.

If AI is to be truly global, it must be trained on datasets that reflect the global population. That requires more than volume. It requires representativity. Survey science has perfected the methods to listen to everyone, not just the few. Now it offers AI what it has always lacked: balance, diversity, and authenticity. The companies that focus on the quality and representativeness of their training data will be the ones that meet users where they are. Just as WhatsApp became ubiquitous by working for people everywhere, the companies that build representative AI will gain the most users and will emerge as the clear global leaders.

Nick Becker is GeoPoll’s CEO.

The post Representative AI Begins with Representative Data appeared first on GeoPoll.

For over a decade, GeoPoll has supported development agencies, governments, researchers, media houses, and commercial clients with timely, high-quality data from some of the world’s most difficult-to-reach regions. Our work has always been rooted in real human insight, collected at scale through mobile-based methods, and made accessible through flexible, remote research infrastructure.

That hasn’t changed.

What has changed, and continues to evolve, is how we use technology to make this work faster, more scalable, and more efficient. We pioneered mobile-based research in emerging markets when connectivity was a challenge and few others were investing in the space. We built custom platforms that made it possible to collect data in hard-to-reach areas, quickly and affordably. And we’ve continued to innovate ever since.

At GeoPoll, no research project is ever identical to the last. Our teams are constantly solving for context, adapting methodologies, building tools in real time, and finding technical solutions that work in places where standard platforms fall short. It’s this practical, hands-on innovation that defines how we operate.

The Direction We Are Taking with AI

Artificial Intelligence is changing how work gets done across every sector, and research is no exception.

As a tech-first research company, we have spent the last several years building, testing, and refining a range of AI tools across our data pipeline. Today, we are pleased to share that AI is now fully integrated into how GeoPoll delivers research, not to tick trend boxes, but as a way to improve the speed, accuracy, and consistency of data collection in the field.

We have embedded AI into the real systems we already use, including but not limited to:

• AI helps validate survey logic and translations before fieldwork begins
• AI checks live data for inconsistencies or anomalies during collection
• AI reviews call transcripts to ensure enumerators follow protocol
• NLP models help code and categorize open-ended responses
• Predictive tools support sample targeting and flagging during tracking studies
• We have built AI models and tools to help with faster data analysis and reporting

Importantly, AI doesn’t replace our teams; it superpowers them. Every GeoPoll project is still led by experienced researchers and supported by local teams. AI allows them to focus on analysis and insight, rather than manual review or error handling.

Simply, we are an AI-enhanced, human-led research organization. Our approach is grounded in the same fundamentals: direct data collection from people on the ground, strong field oversight, and practical, decision-focused reporting. But we’ve embedded AI tools and processes across the research lifecycle to improve efficiency, scale, and quality.

In short, we are still powered by people, but now enhanced by AI.

Where We Stand on Synthetic Data

With growing industry interest in synthetic data and fully simulated insights to replace direct data collection entirely, we have been asked where we stand. The answer is simple:

GeoPoll remains committed to real data from real people.

In the markets we serve, where lived realities often diverge from global assumptions, it is critical to ground decisions in firsthand, current input. We believe that AI can and should enhance this work, but not replace it.

Through internal testing, including findings published in our Whitepaper on Synthetic Data, we have seen firsthand how research based solely on synthetic data can miss the nuance, variability, and context that only direct engagement can provide. It can surface assumptions, but it cannot substitute for experience.

We have the capability to generate synthetic datasets, powered by our technology and one of the largest archives of primary research data in emerging markets, based on over 50 million completed surveys. And we do use synthetic data where it makes sense: to test scripts, simulate responses, and explore hypotheses before live deployment.

But we draw the line at using synthetic data as the final source of truth.

GeoPoll’s position is clear: credible, contextual insight must be built on real people and real voices, especially in regions where reliable data is scarce, outdated, or absent altogether. Our view is that AI should improve how we gather and interpret that data, not bypass it entirely.

Supporting Responsible AI Development with GeoPoll AI Data Streams

Our commitment to real human data also extends to how AI itself is trained.

As large language models (LLMs) and other generative AI tools become more embedded in global systems, one of the most pressing challenges is the lack of representation from underrepresented languages, dialects, and regions, particularly across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. These gaps can result in systems that are biased, less accurate, or outright unusable for a large portion of the world’s population.

GeoPoll’s AI Data Streams was developed to help solve this problem.

In addition to our core research work, we now support a growing number of organizations, including technology companies and academic institutions, in training and fine-tuning AI models using ethically sourced, real-world data from the communities we’ve served for over a decade. This includes primarily voice data, open-ended text responses, and labeled datasets collected in local languages and dialects. These data inputs are collected with consent, anonymized, and processed through workflows designed for AI training quality.

We are contributing real, high-quality data from underrepresented regions to help build more inclusive, context-aware AI systems. We see this work as a natural extension of our mission, supporting decisions, technologies, and tools that are grounded in the realities of the people they aim to serve.

Learn more about GeoPoll AI Data Streams here.

What This Means Going Forward

If you’ve worked with GeoPoll before, you’ll continue to see the same responsiveness, reach, flexibility, and reliability you are used to. The difference now is in how quickly and intelligently we can operate and deliver, while maintaining the human focus that’s always defined our work.

If you haven’t worked with us before, we invite you to experience how authentic human data, enhanced by the right tools, can strengthen your decision-making and reduce the time it takes to get there. Reach out to learn more about how we combine AI innovation with practical, on-the-ground execution.

The post From our CEO: How GeoPoll is Using AI to Strengthen Real-World Research appeared first on GeoPoll.

Data from Mozambique on Destruction and Aid Needed following Cyclone Idai

GeoPoll’s initial data, which is represented in an interactive dashboard below, was collected on March 21st from Sofala, Inhambane, Manica, and Zambezia provinces in Mozambique. GeoPoll was able to reach 700 respondents over the age of 18, all of whom were impacted by cyclone Idai, and who represent households of over 4,700 total individuals. The survey was conducted in Portuguese.

Out of the 700 respondents, 206 are located in Sofala province, which was directly hit by the cyclone, and 185 respondents were from Beira, a coastal city of 500,000 which has been devastated by flooding following the cyclone. The data represents those we have been able to reach so far via mobile phone, and does not provide a complete picture of the situation, but does give valuable insights on the level of destruction across the region. Highlights from the data include:

• 78% in Sofala do not have access to clean drinking water
• 78% in Sofala do not have access to electricity
• 85% total say they had damages to their home, with 39% characterizing damages as major – in Sofala, 90% had damages, with 56% saying they are major damages
• Just 19% overall and 12% in Sofala have received aid since the cyclone
• Of those who have received aid, 60% received food aid, 21% shelter, 20% clean water, 7% electrical connection and 4% cash
• Aid most needed is quite split with 32% saying food is most needed, followed by shelter at 18% and cash at 16%. In Sofala they say food aid is needed more, at 40%, followed by clean water at 19% and cash and shelter both at 13%
• In terms of food security, 75% report they have eaten fewer meals on 3 or more days in the past week. In Sofala 77% have eaten fewer meals on 3 or more days, and  10% have eaten fewer meals on 7 of the past 7 days.

Open-ended responses on the damage to people’s homes provide further details into the individual’s situations and include the following statements:

• “Lost almost all goods including home”
• “The living room wall and ceiling fell left, farm buildings flooded and destroyed the vegetables.”
• “Fallen ceiling, I lost my chickens, duck and my goats”
• “My house is destroyed, my bovine cattle dead, I had 4 heads and a machine”
• “In my house I lost 3 windows and the roof cover made of zinc sheets were all ruined”
• “The house has been removed almost all sheets, and one of the bedrooms collapsed, the land is totally flooded, and my small farm was devastated by the wind”
• “All the sheets went out of the house, one of the walls of the house went down, several fallen trees and practically wet all the food we had.”
• “House is destroyed, homeless, we had little food, wet with rain”
• “Still homeless, rice in the farm rotted because of the excess”
• “All destroyed, no place to stay, inside full of water”
• “Destruction, everything is lost”

To be alerted when GeoPoll collects more data from communities affected by cyclone Idai please fill out the form below and we will notify you as soon as new data is released. To get in touch with a member of GeoPoll’s team contact us here.

Get Alerted to New Data on Cyclone Idai

The post Cyclone Idai: On the Ground Data from Mozambique appeared first on GeoPoll.