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Pliny's Point on May 22, 2017
May 22, 2017: An average of 15 percent approve of how the 115th Congress is handling its job, down two points from Wednesday's average. This is the lowest average approval rating for Congess since April 13. Gallup's 20 percent approval rating is the highest in Ballotpedia's average, while the Economist/YouGov poll is the lowest at 11 percent.[1]
| Source | Date range | Sample size | Job approval rating | Margin of error (+/-) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Economist/YouGov[2] | 5/13 - 5/16 | 1,298 registered voters | 11% | 3.2% |
| Public Policy Polling[3] | 5/12 - 5/14 | 692 registered voters | 15% | 3.9% |
| Gallup[4] | 5/3 - 5/7 | 1,011 adults | 20% | 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account for major news events as we attempt to balance the need for a larger sample of results with the need to remove outdated information.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:
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
