His father, Joseph Rachid Zogby, was an immigrant from Lebanon who ran a successful Utica grocery store with his brothers.

"[5] He dedicated Beyond the Horse Race to his mother, Salemi (Celia Ann) Zogby, who was born in Pennsylvania to Lebanese immigrant parents, and whom he remembered as "An educator of two generations of Uticans, [who] shaped the lives of thousands of young people who passed through her classrooms.

[4][9] In addition to teaching at SUNY Polytechnic, he taught history and political science at Mohawk Valley Community College, where he was commencement speaker in 2011, and later chaired its capital campaign.

[17] He tells the story of being part of a broad layoff at an Arab-American anti-discrimination group, and launching his polling firm immediately thereafter because so many of the Arab Americans he had worked with needed him and were ready to hire him.

[23][24] He is the author of four books: Beyond the Horse Race: How to Read Polls and Why We Should (Rowman & Littlefield 2024), as well as The Way We'll Be: The Zogby Report on the Transformation of the American Dream (Random House, 2008), and the First Globals: Understanding, Managing, and Unleashing Our Millennial Generation (with Joan Snyder Kuhl).

[25][26] We Are Many, We Are One: Neo-Tribes and Tribal Analytics in 21st Century America, emphasized a new paradigm for moving beyond demographics by allowing people who participated in the survey research to define themselves based on their attributes and values.

[46][47] John Zogby's polls have been referenced in popular culture, including NBC's The West Wing, CW's Gossip Girl, the Netflix series House of Cards, Richard North Patterson's novel The Race, the Simpsons, game shows such as the UK's Cash Cab, and the 25th Anniversary edition of Trivial Pursuit.

"[49] Although political polling could easily have drawn him to New York City or Washington, DC, he has always remained in his home town of Utica, which he sees as one key to his success in understanding American communities more broadly.

[50] His wife Kathleen is a retired special education teacher and children's book author, Nonnie's Lessons of Love, Hope, and Nature (2016).