Your feedback ensures we stay focused on the facts that matter to you most—take our survey
Pliny's Point on February 22, 2017
February 22, 2017: An average of recent polls indicates that 36 percent of people in the U.S. think the country is moving in the right direction. This percentage holds steady from last week, despite updated polling data from Rasmussen Reports that showed a one percent increase in those who thought the country was on the right track (from 45 to 46 percent). All the polls included in this average are listed below.
| Source | Date range | Sample size | % who think the U.S. is headed in the right direction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rasmussen Reports[1] | 2/12 - 2/16 | 2,500 likely voters | 46% |
| Economist/YouGov[2] | 2/12 - 2/14 | 1,100 registered voters | 31% |
| Reuters/Ipsos[3] | 2/10 - 2/14 | 1,774 adults | 31% |
Methodology
For Ballotpedia's presidential approval, congressional approval, and direction of the country polling results, we take an average of the most recent polls on one or more of these topics conducted by 12 sources. Polls may be included in the average for up to 30 days, though this timeline may be adjusted to account for major news events as we attempt to balance the need for a larger sample of results with the need to remove outdated information. For a full description of our methodology and polling explanations, see: Ballotpedia's Polling Indexes.
What's in a name?
Pliny the Elder, a scholar from the Roman Empire, is most well known for writing the encyclopedic work Naturalis Historia, or “Natural History.” His extremely thorough work covered everything from botany to technology. Naturalis Historia, one of the largest Roman works that still exists from the first century A.D., became an example for future encyclopedic works through its formatting, references, and comprehensiveness.
Today, Ballotpedia works to preserve and expand knowledge, just like Pliny did hundreds of years ago. One of the features of Ballotpedia, the encyclopedia of American politics, was a daily statistic called Pliny’s Point. Each day, between January 20, 2017 and September 1, 2017, readers learned where Americans stood on the direction of the country, or their approval of elected officials.
Click here for more Pliny's Point articles.
See also
Ballotpedia daily polling averages:
Stay in the know:
- The Weekly Brew
- The Daily Brew
- You're Hired: Tracking the Trump Administration Transition, 2016-2017
- Policy issues under the Trump administration, 2017-2021
- 115th United States Congress
- Special elections to the 115th United States Congress (2017-2018)
Footnotes
