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Pliny's Point on March 29, 2017
March 29, 2017: The average congressional approval rating is at 19 percent, showing decline throughout the month of March. The latest poll by The Economist/YouGov showed a 14 percent approval rating for Congress. The older polls included in today's average are from the beginning of the month and range from 18 (Quinnipiac) to 24 (Gallup) percent approval. Congress started March with a 25 percent average approval rating.
All of the polls included in today's average are listed below.
| Source | Date range | Sample size | Job approval rating | Margin of error (+/-) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Economist/YouGov[1] | 3/19 - 3/21 | 1,287 registered voters | 14% | 3.3% |
| Quinnipiac University[2] | 3/2 - 3/6 | 1,283 registered voters | 18% | 2.7% |
| Gallup[3] | 3/1 - 3/5 | 1,018 adults | 24% | 4% |
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account for major news events as we attempt to balance the need for a larger sample of results with the need to remove outdated information.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:
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- The Weekly Brew
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- You're Hired: Tracking the Trump Administration Transition, 2016-2017
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Footnotes
