January 2024 Reuters/Ipsos Core Political

Washington, DC, February 1, 2024 – In January’s Core Political, President Joe Biden’s approval falls slightly, while the majority of Americans say the country is heading off on the wrong track. The economy remains the biggest problem facing the U.S. today among Americans, and Trump outperforms Biden on perceived approach to the economy.  On the other hand, Biden outperforms Trump on a wider range of issues, including women’s rights, the environment, respect for democracy, healthcare, and education.

Detailed Findings

1. The economy remains the most important problem facing the U.S. this month (22%), up three percentage points from December. Immigration is a close second, as about one-fifth (17%) of Americans say it is the most important issue. Crime or corruption (8%) and the environment and climate (6%) follow as the third and fourth most important issues, respectively.
   • This month, Republicans are more likely to say immigration is the most important issue than the economy (36% vs. 29%, respectively). The economy remains the top issue for Democrats and independents.
2. Only 16% of Americans say the country is headed in the right direction; meanwhile, 65% say it is headed off on the wrong track. The majority of Republicans and independents say it is off on the wrong track (89% and 63%, respectively), but Democrats are more divided. Forty-seven percent of Democrats say the country is off on the wrong track, but about one-third (34%) say it is headed in the right direction.
3. About two in five Americans (38%) say they approve of how Joe Biden is handling his job as president. The majority (57%), however, disapproves. Biden’s approval has been relatively stable over the past year, fluctuating at around 40% for the last year.
4. When asked which presidential candidate has a better approach to various key issues, Trump most strongly outperforms Biden on the economy (40% for Trump vs. 30% for Biden). Conversely, Biden outperforms Trump by at least ten percentage points on women’s rights (+22 points), the environment (+19 points), respect for democracy (+16 points), healthcare (+12 points), and education (+11 points).

Methodology

This Ipsos poll was conducted January 26-28, 2024, by Ipsos using the probability-based KnowledgePanel®. This poll is based on a nationally representative probability sample of 1,019 general population adults aged 18 or older.

The margin of sampling error for this study is plus or minus 3.3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level, for results based on the entire sample of adults. The margin of sampling error takes into account the design effect, which was 1.18. The margin of sampling error is higher and varies for results based on other sub-samples. In our reporting of the findings, percentage points are rounded off to the nearest whole number. As a result, percentages in a given table column may total slightly higher or lower than 100%. In questions that permit multiple responses, columns may total substantially more than 100%, depending on the number of different responses offered by each respondent.

The survey was conducted using KnowledgePanel®, the largest and most well-established online probability-based panel that is representative of the adult U.S. population. Our recruitment process employs a scientifically developed addressed-based sampling methodology using the latest Delivery Sequence File of the USPS – a database with full coverage of all delivery points in the US. Households invited to join the panel are randomly selected from all available households in the U.S. Persons in the sampled households are invited to join and participate in the panel. Those selected who do not already have internet access are provided a tablet and internet connection at no cost to the panel member. Those who join the panel and who are selected to participate in a survey are sent a unique password-protected log-in used to complete surveys online. As a result of our recruitment and sampling methodologies, samples from KnowledgePanel® cover all households regardless of their phone or internet status and findings can be reported with a margin of sampling error and projected to the general population.

The data were weighted to adjust for gender by age, race/ethnicity, education, Census region, metropolitan status, household income and party identification. The demographic benchmarks came from the 2023 March supplement of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS). Party ID benchmarks are from recent ABC News telephone polls.

About Ipsos

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