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Pliny's Point on May 9, 2017
May 9, 2017: An average of recent polls shows 38 percent of Americans think the country is moving in the right direction, an increase of one percent from Thursday. An average of 57 percent believe the country is on the wrong track. Individual poll results featured in today's average range from 33 to 44 on the positive side and 51 to 59 on the negative side.
| Source | Date range | Sample size | % who think the U.S. is headed in the right direction | Margin of error (+/-) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rasmussen Reports[1] | 4/30 - 5/4 | 2,500 likely voters | 38% | 2% |
| Economist/YouGov[2] | 4/29 - 5/2 | 1,255 registered voters | 36% | 3.1% |
| Reuters/Ipsos[3] | 4/28 - 5/2 | 2,214 adults | 33% | 2.4% |
| CBS News[4] | 4/21 - 4/24 | 1,214 registered voters | 36% | 3% |
| Politico/Morning Consult[5] | 4/20 - 4/24 | 2,032 registered voters | 44% | 2% |
| NBC / Wall Street Journal [6] | 4/17 - 4/20 | 900 adults | 34% | 3.3% |
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account for major news events as we attempt to balance the need for a larger sample of results with the need to remove outdated information.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:
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
- ↑ Rasmussen Reports, "Right Direction or Wrong Track," May 8, 2017
- ↑ YouGov, "The Economist/YouGov Poll," April 29 - May 2, 2017
- ↑ Ipsos, "Reuters/Ipsos Data: Core Political," May 3, 2017
- ↑ CBS News, "100 days: Sharp partisan divides mark Trump presidency - CBS News poll," April 26, 2017
- ↑ Politico/Morning Consult, "National Tracking Poll," April 20-24, 2017
- ↑ [http://www.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/17119NBCWSJAprilPollFullRelease.pdf The Wall Street Journal, "April Poll Full Release," April 24, 2017
