29% Say U.S. Heading in Right Direction

Twenty-nine percent (29%) of Likely U.S. Voters think the country is heading in the right direction, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey for the week ending April 20.

The finding is down two points from 31% the previous week. The number who say the country is heading in the right direction has been in the narrow range of 28% to 30% for 16 out of the 18 weeks since mid-December.

Early last October during the federal government shutdown, confidence in the country’s course fell to 13%, the lowest finding in five years.

Sixty-three percent (63%) of voters now think the country is headed down the wrong track, up two points from last week. Eighty percent (80%) felt the country was on the wrong track in early October.

A year ago, 30% said the country is heading in the right direction; 62% disagreed.

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The national telephone survey of 3,500 Likely Voters was conducted by Rasmussen Reports on April 14-20, 2014. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 2 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Fieldwork for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Eighty-seven percent (87%) of Republicans and 68% of voters not affiliated with either major political party think the country is on the wrong track. Among Democrats, 50% believe the country is heading in the right direction, while 39% think it is headed down the wrong track.

Fifty-one percent (51%) of black voters think the country is heading in the right direction. Sixty-eight percent (68%) of whites and 62% of other minority voters disagree.

Ninety percent (90%) of conservative voters and 55% of moderates believe the country is headed down the wrong track.  Fifty-two percent (52%) of liberal voters believe it is heading in the right direction.

Members of labor unions believe the country is headed down the wrong track by a 56% to 31% margin. Even more (64%) of those who do not belong to a union believe the country is headed the wrong way. Seventy-one percent (71%) of voters who have a gun in the household think the country is heading in the wrong direction, compared to 53% of those without a gun in their home. 

Belief among all voters that America is winning the War on Terror and is safer than before the 9/11 terrorist attacks have fallen to their lowest levels in three years.

Most voters continue to believe that the U.S. economy is fair to women, blacks and Hispanics, but 62% still view the economy as unfair to the middle class.

Only 19% now trust the federal government to do the right thing most or nearly all the time.

Thirty-eight percent (38%) of homeowners expect their home to worth more in a year's time. 

Fifty percent (50%) of Americans expect interest rates to be higher a year from now. Seventy-five percent (75%) are concerned about inflation, but only 41% are even somewhat confident that the Federal Reserve Board will be able to keep inflation under control and interest rates down.

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