Your feedback ensures we stay focused on the facts that matter to you most—take our survey
Pliny's Point on March 30, 2017
March 30, 2017: An average of recent polls indicates that 38 percent think the U.S. is moving in the right direction, while 53 percent think the country is headed in the wrong direction. The positive percentage is down one point from last week, due to the addition of new polling data from The Economist/YouGov, Reuters/Ipsos, Politico/Morning Consult, and Rasmussen Reports. All of the polls included in today's average are listed below. These individual results range from 32 to 46 percent of respondents who said the U.S. is on the right track.
| Source | Date range | Sample size | % who think the U.S. is headed in the right direction | Margin of error (+/-) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Economist/YouGov[1] | 3/26 - 3/28 | 1,271 registered voters | 33% | 3.2% |
| Reuters/Ipsos[2] | 3/24 - 3/28 | 1,646 adults | 32% | 2.8% |
| Politico/Morning Consult[3] | 3/24 - 3/25 | 1,991 registered voters | 42% | 2% |
| Rasmussen Reports[4] | 3/19 - 3/23 | 2,500 likely voters | 38% | 2% |
| USA Today/Suffolk University[5] | 3/1 - 3/5 | 1,000 registered voters | 46% | 3% |
The chart below shows the change in this polling average over time.
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account for major news events as we attempt to balance the need for a larger sample of results with the need to remove outdated information.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
- ↑ YouGov, "The Economist/YouGov Poll," March 26-28, 2017
- ↑ Ipsos, "Reuters/Ipsos Data: Core Political," March 29, 2017
- ↑ Politico, "Morning Consult + Politico National Tracking Poll," March 24-25, 2017
- ↑ Rasmussen Reports, "Right Direction or Wrong Track," March 27, 2017
- ↑ USA Today, "USA TODAY Poll: Tweets and temperament are tripping up President Trump," March 7, 2017
