Satisfaction With U.S. Direction Reaches 12-Year H
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by Jim Norman
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Thirty-eight percent of Americans are satisfied with the way things are going in the United States today, similar to last month's 37% satisfaction rate but marking the numerical high since a 39% reading in September 2005.
The satisfaction rate, which Gallup has measured at least monthly since 2001, has now topped 35% three times this year -- a level reached only three times in the previous 12 years (once each in 2006, 2009 and 2016).
Satisfaction with the nation is now back to the historical average of 37% for this trend, which was first measured in 1979, but is far below the majority levels reached in the economic boom times of the mid-1980s and late 1990s.
In its first four years (1979 and 1981-1983), satisfaction failed to reach 37% in any poll, but then routinely reached or exceeded that level in 1984 through 2005 polling, with the exception of 1992-1995 (excluding one 36% reading in 1994). After a January 2006 reading of 36%, satisfaction failed to surpass 35% the rest of that year, and with the economic calamities that followed over the next few years, it descended into single digits in two 2008 polls and has subsequently stayed mostly below 30%.
The rise in satisfaction over the past two months comes amid a spate of positive economic news -- including the shrinking of the unemployment rate to levels last seen in 2000 and the continuation of an economic expansion that is now the second longest on record. Other prominent national news stories have included independent counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian collusion; President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the United States from the Iran nuclear deal; and Trump's negotiations with North Korea that culminated in his meeting Tuesday with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
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https://news.gallup.com/poll/235739/satisfact...yndication