Reuters/Ipsos Core Political Survey: Presidential Approval Tracker (12/16/2020)

Washington, DC, December 16, 2020 –   In the most recent Reuters/Ipsos Core Political survey, Americans continue to say the country is heading in the wrong direction. The economy and jobs, healthcare and other issues – namely the coronavirus – are seen as the most important problems for a majority of Americans. President Donald Trump’s overall approval rating remains unchanged from last week. A majority continue to approve of how President-elect Joe Biden is handling his position, but his approval rating has cooled over the last several weeks.

Americans continue to be unhappy with the direction of the country, just 21% report the nation is headed in the right direction.  

• Democratic registered voters are least likely to say the country is headed in the right direction (16%), followed closely by independent registered voters (19%). Republican registered voters are more optimistic (30% say right direction), but this number is down by over 30 points since February of this year.

About one-third of Americans say the economy and jobs are the most important problem facing the country (30%), followed by healthcare (19%) and other issues (19%), like the coronavirus.

• Healthcare (28%) and the economy and jobs (27%) are the most important problems for Democratic registered voters. Twenty percent also volunteer that other issues, like the coronavirus pandemic, as the most important problem.
• Thirty-four percent of Republican registered voters say the economy and jobs are the most important problem, followed by 19% who volunteer other issues like coronavirus. In stark contrast to their Democratic counterparts, just 12% say healthcare is the most important problem facing the nation.
• Independent registered voters are concerned with the economy and jobs (38%), other issues (21%) and healthcare (15%).

A majority of Americans approve of how Joe Biden is handling his position as president-elect (53%), but this number has softened over the last few weeks, down from 60% in mid-November.

• A strong majority of Democratic registered voters approve (89%). Over half of independent registered voters approve (51%). Republican registered voters are very critical of how Biden is handling the new role, with just 19% approving.

Forty-one percent of Americans approve of how Donald Trump is handling his position as president, unchanged from last week.

• Eighty-three percent of Republican registered voters approve of President Trump. However, just 38% of independent registered voters, and only 9% of Democratic registered voter approve.

About the Study

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between December 11-14, 2020 on behalf of Thomson Reuters. For this survey, a sample of 1,336 Americans age 18+ from the continental U.S., Alaska, and Hawaii were interviewed online in English. The sample includes 1,113 registered voters, 520 Democratic registered voters, 434 Republican registered voters, and 120 independent registered voters. 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 ± 3.1 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 ± 3.3 percentage points for all registered voters, ± 4.9 percentage points for Democratic registered voters, ± 5.4 percentage points for Republican registered voters, and ± 10.2 percentage points for independent registered voters.  

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]

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