Snapshot: 38% of Americans Satisfied With U.S.

Byline: Frank Newport

Synopsis: Less than a month before the midterm elections, 38% of Americans are satisfied with the way things are going in the U.S. Government remains the perceived most important problem facing the nation.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Less than a month before the November midterm elections, 38% of Americans are satisfied with the way things are going in the United States, little changed over the past six months but generally higher than it has been over the past decade. From a longer-term perspective, the current satisfaction reading is similar to the 37% average reading since Gallup began tracking satisfaction in 1979.

Background: These results are based on Gallup's Oct. 1-10 survey, the most recent update of this question, which has been measured on a monthly basis since 2001 and less frequently from 1979 to 2000.

The 38% satisfaction rating in October is significantly higher than it was in the final polls conducted before the two midterm elections held during Barack Obama's presidency -- 2014 and 2010. But it is comparable to the 2006 reading, during George W. Bush's second term. The party of the president lost seats in the U.S. House of Representatives in each of those elections. By contrast, satisfaction was 60% in 1998 and 48% in 2002, and the president's party gained seats in both years.

Gallup will take one final measure of Americans' satisfaction with the way things are going in the final weeks of October and will report those results before the elections.

As is almost always the case, Americans who identify with the party of the president are more likely than others to be satisfied with the way things are going. Specifically, 69% of Republicans in the latest poll report being satisfied, compared with 36% of independents and 12% of Democrats -- similar to last month.

Two important conclusions from last month's analysis of Americans' views of the most important problem facing the nation are reinforced in October's data. First, the 13% this month who mention some...

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