Ipsos/ Reuters Poll: September 2011

Washington, DC - Key findings from Ipsos' latest poll carried out on behalf of Reuters and published today are listed below and the topline document is available for download on the right .

These are findings from an Ipsos poll conducted for Reuters from September 8th through 12th, 2011. For the survey, a nationally representative, randomly selected sample of exactly 1,134 adults aged 18 and older across the United States was interviewed by Ipsos via live telephone interviewing on landlines and cell phones. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate within 3 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult population in the U.S. been polled.

Key findings include:

• President Obama received a small bump in approval ratings after his recent jobs speech according to the recently released Rueters-Ipsos poll conducted Sept 8-12, 2011. His approval rating climbed two points to 47% approve after hitting to 45% in August.
• His rally is most pronounced among Democrats, where his approval climbed from 71% in August to 77% in September.
• However, Obama's advantage vis-а-vis several of the potential Republican challengers has faded since May. The closest competitor is Mitt Romney, currently at a 6 point deficit among registered voters (49% Obama, 43% Romney). The other Republican challengers continue to have larger margins to surmount (all among registered voters).
• Ron Paul is down 7 points (49 Obama to 42)
• Rick Perry is down 8 points (50 to 42)
• Huntsman is down 14 points (51 to 37)
• Michelle Bachmann is down 18 points (54 to 36)
• Turning to employment, while Americans often say losing a job is a major traumatic experience, there are a number of events they see as significantly worse:
• Illness is almost universally terrifying -- 79% say that finding out you have cancer and 75% say a major illness is worse than losing a job
• On the anniversary of 9/11, major disasters are also worse -- 79% say a terrorist attack is worse than losing a job and 71% say being in a natural disaster is worse
• 76% say a death in the family is worse
• However, Americans are more divided on more personal events:
• 56% say being the victim of a crime is worse
• 53% say getting a divorce is worse
• And there are a couple areas where losing your job is clearly worse:
• Being embarrassed on national TV (25%)
• Favorite team losing a national championship game (5%)
• Finally, examining public trust in major institutions. Ipsos first asked about trust in institutions in September 1996. Now, 15 years later we find that the popular narrative of widely declining trust in government is largely wrong.
• Trust in the federal government is up 7 points (18% from 11% in 1996). Likewise, trust in local governments is up 11 points (24% from 13%).
• In this age of active American military operations, the public trust in the U.S. Military is extremely high (68% vs 46% in 1996).
• However, this is also an age of economic downturn. Trust in in employers is down 11 points (to 30% from 41%) and distrust of banks/financial institutions is up 12 points (26% from 14%).

More data and full technical details are available in the topline PDF document available for download.

For more information on this news release please contact:

Clifford Young Managing Director, Public Sector Practice Ipsos Public Affairs 312.375.3328 [email protected]

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