Help us improve in just 2 minutes—share your thoughts in our reader survey.
Pliny's Point on May 18, 2017
May 18, 2017: An average of 36 percent think the U.S. is headed in the right direction, while a majority of 57 percent think the country is on the wrong track, according to recent polls. This is a two point drop from Tuesday, largely due to new polls by Reuters / Ipsos and Economist / YouGov, which both showed a decline from numbers published by the same surveys the previous week. Reuters / Ipsos showed a two point drop, from 30 to 28 perecent, while the Economist / YouGov poll showed a five percent drop, from 35 to 30 percent.[1]
| Source | Date range | Sample size | % who think the U.S. is headed in the right direction | Margin of error (+/-) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Politico/Morning Consult[2] | 5/9 - 5/11 | 1,731 registered voters | 44% | 2% |
| Rasmussen Reports[3] | 5/7 - 5/11 | 2,500 likely voters | 37% | 2% |
| Economist/YouGov[4] | 5/13 - 5/16 | 1,298 registered voters | 30% | 3.2% |
| Reuters/Ipsos[5] | 5/12 - 5/16 | 1,868 adults | 28% | 2.6% |
| IBD/TIPP[6] | 4/28 - 5/4 | 904 adults | 43% | 3.3% |
| CBS News[7] | 4/21 - 4/24 | 1,214 adults | 36% | 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account for major news events as we attempt to balance the need for a larger sample of results with the need to remove outdated information.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 15, 2017
- ↑ Morning Consult, "Politico + Morning Consult Poll," May 9-11, 2017
- ↑ Rasmussen Reports, "Right Direction or Wrong Track," May 15, 2017
- ↑ YouGov, "The Economist/YouGov Poll," May 13 - May 16, 2017
- ↑ Ipsos, "Ipsos Poll Conducted for Reuters: Core Political Data," May 17, 2017
- ↑ Investor's Business Daily, "Trump's Approval Climbs As His Tax Cut Plan Wins Strong Support — IBD/TIPP Poll," May 8, 2017
- ↑ CBS News, "100 days: Sharp partisan divides mark Trump presidency - CBS News poll," April 26, 2017
