Ipsos Core Political : Presidential Approval Tracker (12/17/2021)

Washington, DC, December 17, 2021 – Just over half of Americans approve of the way President Biden has been handling the COVID-19 pandemic and the environment.

Americans believe the economy (23%), public health (12%), crime or corruption (9%), and the environment (9%) are the most important problems facing the U.S. today.

The economy continues to be the most important issue for Republicans (28%) and independents (28%). Democrats, meanwhile, are torn between the economy (17%) and public health (17%) for the top issue, followed by the environment (14%).  

Americans remain split on their opinion of Biden, 48% approve while 46% disapprove.  

Four out of five Democrats (81%) approve of Biden, while only 17% of Republicans and 39% of independents do.  

Americans would like Biden to prioritize the economy (42%) and COVID-19 (30%) more than other issues.

Democrats would like COVID-19 (42%) to be Biden’s top priority, while 56% of Republicans and 46% of independents believe it should be the economy.

Biden gets the highest approval ratings for his handling of COVID-19 (53%) and the environment (51%), followed by employment and jobs (48%) and racial inequality (46%).

A closer look at these approval ratings reveal that it is Democrats who are rating Biden the highest on these issues, while only about a quarter or less of Republicans approve of him. Independents give him their highest rating on the environment (54%).

About the Study

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between December 15-17, 2021. For this survey, a sample of 1,004 Americans age 18+ from the continental U.S., Alaska, and Hawaii were interviewed online in English. The sample includes 421 Democrats, 374 Republicans, and 126 independents. Weighting was then employed to balance demographics to ensure that the sample's composition reflects that of the adult population according to Census data and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within ± 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Americans been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including but not limited to coverage error and measurement error. The poll also has a credibility interval of ± 5.4 percentage points for Democrats, ± 5.8 percentage points for Republicans, and ± 10.0 percentage points for independents.  

For more information on this news release, please contact:

Chris Jackson
Senior Vice President, US
Public Affairs
+1 202 420-2025
[email protected]

Kate Silverstein
Media Relations, US
Public Affairs
+1 718 755-8829
[email protected]

About Ipsos

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