25% Say U.S. Heading in Right Direction

Twenty-five percent (25%) 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 August 31.

This is up two points from the week before which tied the lowest level of confidence since last October during the temporary government shutdown. The number who say the country is heading in the right direction has been below 30% for most of this year.

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

Sixty-six percent (66%) of voters now think the country is headed down the wrong track. This finding is down three points from 69% a week ago, the highest negative finding since last November. Eighty percent (80%) felt the country was on the wrong track in early October 2013.

A year ago, 30% said the country was heading in the right direction, while 62% said it was going down the wrong track.

(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.

The national telephone survey of 3,500 Likely Voters was conducted by Rasmussen Reports on August 25-31, 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 70% of voters not affiliated with either major political party think the country is on the wrong track. Democrats are evenly divided.

Blacks now think the country is headed in the right direction by a 47% to 36% margin. Seventy-two percent (72%) of whites and 54% of other minority voters think the country is headed in the wrong direction.

Sixty-three percent (63%) of the Political Class say the country is headed in the right direction, while 78% of Mainstream voters say the country is headed down the wrong track. 

Eighty-six percent (86%) of conservatives and 60% of moderates say the country is headed down the wrong track. Liberals are almost evenly divided.

The Rasmussen Employment Index which measures worker confidence reached a new all-time high in August after falling for two straight months. This suggests the upcoming jobs report could be better than expected.

Americans overwhelmingly count on their local water supply, but they're not overly confident that it's well protected.

Nearly half of voters now think Congress should go through the new national health care law to fine tune it rather than repeal it entirely.

Most voters have an unfavorable opinion of the U.S. Department of Justice and think it is more interested in politics than in serving justice.

Support for Common Core education standards has rebounded from earlier this summer, but most Americans are still not in favor of tying a state’s federal funding to the adoption of the standards.

Crosstabs and historical data are available to Platinum Members only.

Please sign up for the Rasmussen Reports daily e-mail update (it's free) or follow us on Twitter or Facebook. Let us keep you up to date with the latest public opinion news.