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Pliny's Point on March 7, 2017
March 7, 2017: Recent polls continue to show less than half of respondents think the U.S. is moving in the right direction, with national polls ranging from 35 to 45 percent. The 39 percent average of those who think the country is moving in the right direction is up two points from last week. New polling data was added from Rasmussen Reports, The Economist/YouGov, Reuters/Ipsos, and Politico/Morning Consult. The full list of polls included in today's average is below.
| Source | Date range | Sample size | % who think the U.S. is headed in the right direction | Margin of error (+/-) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rasmussen Reports[1] | 2/26 - 3/2 | 2,500 likely voters | 45% | 2% |
| Economist/YouGov[2] | 2/25-3/1 | 1,251 registered voters | 36% | 3.2% |
| Reuters/Ipsos[3] | 2/24-2/28 | 1,847 adults | 35% | 2.3% |
| Politico/Morning Consult[4] | 2/24-2/26 | 2,000 registered voters | 43% | 2% |
| Wall Street Journal/NBC[5] | 2/18 - 2/22 | 1,000 adults | 40% | 3.1% |
| CBS News[6] | 2/17 - 2/21 | 1,280 adults | 35% | 3% |
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account for major news events as we attempt to balance the need for a larger sample of results with the need to remove outdated information.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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Footnotes
- ↑ Rasmussen Reports, "Right Direction or Wrong Track," March 6, 2017
- ↑ YouGov, "The Economist/YouGov Po," February 25-March 2, 2017
- ↑ Ipsos, "Reuters/Ipsos Data: Core Political," February 22, 2017
- ↑ Morning Consult + Politico, "National Tracking Poll," February 24-26, 2017
- ↑ Wall Street Journal, "NBC News/Wall Street Journal Survey," February 18-22, 2017
- ↑ CBS News, Poll: Immigration is most important problem for Trump and Congress," February 23, 2017
