Pliny's Point on February 7, 2017

About Pliny's Point

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By Ballotpedia Staff

February 7, 2017: An average of recent polls shows approximately 34 percent of respondents think the United States is headed in the right direction. Since last Tuesday, this rating has seen a net gain of two percentage points. However, it jumped to a 35 percent rating later in the week, due to the publication of the latest Reuters/Ipsos and The Economist/YouGov polls on February 1. The latest polling data comes from Rasmussen Reports, published on February 6, in which 46 percent of respondents thought the U.S. was heading in the right direction.

Poll sources and percent of respondents who think the U.S. is headed in the right direction:

• CBS News (1,257 adults surveyed between 1/13 and 1/16): 29 percent
• Rasmussen Reports (2,500 likely voters surveyed between 1/29 and 2/2): 46 percent
• Economist/YouGov (1,278 registered voters surveyed between 1/28 and 1/31): 35 percent
• Reuters/Ipsos (3,151 adults surveyed between 1/27 and 1/31): 30 percent
• Wall Street Journal/NBC (1,000 adults surveyed between 1/12 and 1/15): 37 percent
• Washington Post/ABC (1,005 adults surveyed between 1/12 and 1/15): 29 percent

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account for major news events as we attempt to balance the need for a larger sample of results with the need to remove outdated information.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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