34% Say U.S. Heading in Right Direction

Thirty-four percent (34%) 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 February 8. 

This finding is unchanged from the previous week. The number of voters who think the country is heading in the right direction has been 30% or higher for the last seven weeks after being in the mid- to high 20s most weeks since mid-June 2013.

Fifty-eight percent (58%) of voters now believe the nation is headed down the wrong track, also unchanged from last week.

A year ago at this time, 29% said the country was heading in the right direction, while 63% thought it was headed down the wrong track.  

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 The national telephone survey of 2,800 Likely Voters was conducted by Rasmussen Reports from February 2-8, 2015. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 2 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Consumer confidence has been trending down in recent days and has now fallen to its lowest level since November. Investor confidence is down from the first of the year but is still well ahead of where it was for over a year prior to that.

Fifty-seven percent (57%) of Democrats say the country is headed in the right direction. Eighty-two percent (82%) of Republicans and 62% of voters not affiliated with either major political party think the country is on the wrong track. 

Sixty-five percent (65%) of white voters say the country is on the wrong track. Fifty-eight percent (58%) of black voters say the country is headed in the right direction. Other minority voters are almost evenly divided.

The older the voter, the more likely he or she is to think the country is headed in the wrong direction.

Seventy-nine percent (79%) of conservatives and 52% of moderates say the country is on the wrong track, but 59% of liberals disagree.

Sixty-two percent (62%) of the Political Class say the country is heading in the right direction; 68% of Mainstream voters disagree.

Americans seem to be relatively content with their current jobs since nearly half believe staying put affords them the best opportunity to get ahead. But 15% also now say they’re among the working poor, the highest finding since July 2012. Most remain highly skeptical about the ability of the public schools to produce high school graduates ready for college and the workplace.

Support for capital punishment in America remains steady.

Most Americans say their religious faith is important to their daily lives and think the nation would be better off if they practiced that faith more often.

What does America think about the safety of vaccinations?

Support for legalization of recreational marijuana is down slightly.

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