Ipsos Core Political Survey: Presidential Approval Tracker (05/13/2021)
Washington, DC, May 13, 2021 – Fifty-six percent of Americans approve of President Biden’s work while in office. Less than half of Americans believe the country is headed in the right direction, a sentiment primarily driven by Republicans. Partisanship also plays a role in Biden’s approval rating on the nation’s top issues, with Republicans largely disapproving of Biden on all the issues while enjoying Democrats almost universally support him.
Just over one-third of Americans (37%) believe the country is headed in the right direction, while 48% think is off on the wrong track. Republicans are most likely to believe it is off on the wrong track (78%), while 61% of Democrats think it’s headed in the right direction.
For Americans, the economy (23%) remains the most critical problem the country is facing. This week, the healthcare system (12%) overtook inequality and discrimination (10%) as one of the top four issues for Americans.
The economy (22%) rose five points from last week for Democrats, becoming the most critical issue. The healthcare system and public health are tied for second place at 15% each, followed by inequality and discrimination (14%). Concern regarding immigration (21%) has increased four points since last week among Republicans, remaining the second most important issue. The economy (28%) continues to be most pressing for Republicans, while morality is a more distant third at 11%.
Fifty-six percent of Americans approve of the way Joe Biden is handling his job as President.
Just over 9 in 10 Democrats approve of Biden’s performance as President. Meanwhile, only 18% of Republicans and 55% of independents do.
Americans think President Biden should focus on addressing the U.S. economy (33%) and the COVID-19 pandemic first (32%).
Democrats are most likely to believe that COVID-19 (52%) needs to be a priority, while Republicans are most concerned about the economy (45%) and immigration (40%).
President Biden receives a positive approval rating from close to or over half of Americans on most of the following issues.
Finally, a closer look at Biden’s approval ratings on the following issues reveals that Democrats are primarily behind those positive marks, while Republicans are most likely to disapprove.
About the Study
These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between May 11-12, 2021. For this survey, a sample of 1,005 Americans age 18+ from the continental U.S., Alaska, and Hawaii were interviewed online in English. The sample includes 434 Democrats, 399 Republicans, and 109 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, ± 5.6 percentage points for Republicans, and ± 10.7 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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Our passionately curious research professionals, analysts, and scientists have built unique multi-specialist capabilities that provide true understanding and powerful insights into the actions, opinions, and motivations of citizens, consumers, patients, customers, or employees. We serve more than 5,000 clients across the world with 75 business solutions.
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