Pliny's Point on May 12, 2017

About Pliny's Point

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By Ballotpedia Staff

May 12, 2017: An average of 37 percent think the country is moving in the right direction, down one point from earlier in the week. Three new polls are included in today's average. The Economist/YouGov and Reuters/Ipsos polls both decreased by 3 points since Tuesday, indicating less satisfaction in the direction the country is heading (though the change is still within or close to the margins of error). A new poll from Politico/Morning Consult showed no change. All polls indicate that more than half of the country think the U.S. is on the wrong track.

Source	Date range	Sample size	% who think the U.S. is headed in the right direction	Margin of error (+/-)
Politico/Morning Consult	5/9 - 5/11	1,731 registered voters	44%	2%
Economist/YouGov	5/6 - 5/9	1,287 registered voters	35%	3.1%
Reuters/Ipsos	5/5 - 5/9	1,830 adults	30%	2.6%
Rasmussen Reports	4/30 - 5/4	2,500 likely voters	39%	2%
IBD/TIPP	4/28 - 5/4	904 adults	43%	3.3%
CBS News	4/21 - 4/24	1,214 adults	36%	3%
Wall Street Journal/NBC	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account for major news events as we attempt to balance the need for a larger sample of results with the need to remove outdated information.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

• Pliny's Point

Ballotpedia daily polling averages:

• Presidential approval
• Congressional approval
• Direction of country

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