25% Say U.S. Heading in Right Direction

For the second week in a row, 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 July 13. 

That's the lowest finding since the beginning of December. The number who say the country is heading in the right direction has been less than 30% for 20 out of 28 weeks this year.

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

Sixty-seven percent (67%) of voters now think the country is headed down the wrong track. That's unchanged for the third straight week and remains the highest negative of 2014. Eighty percent (80%) felt the country was on the wrong track in early October.

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

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The national telephone survey of 3,500 Likely Voters was conducted by Rasmussen Reports on July 7-July 13, 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-nine percent (89%) of Republicans and 73% of voters not affiliated with either major political party think the country is on the wrong track. Democrats are evenly divided.

Eighty-five percent (85%) of conservative voters and 61% of moderates say the country is on the wrong track. Liberals agree but by a much narrower 49% to 41% margin.

Sixty percent (60%) of black voters think the country is heading in the right direction. Seventy-five percent (75%) of whites and 57% of other minority voters disagree.

Married voters and those with children in the home are more pessimistic than unmarrieds and voters who don't have children living with them. 

Evangelical Christians feel even more strongly than those of other faiths that the country is heading down the wrong track. 

Just 29% of all voters think America’s best days are in the future, the lowest level of optimism in nearly eight years of regular surveying.

Americans still overwhelmingly believe in the importance of closing the border to future illegal immigration despite the federal government’s failure to do so. 

Most voters still think American society is generally fair and decent and believe those who immigrate here should adopt the culture. 

Despite the negative perceptions about the overall direction of the country, the number of homeowners who feel their home is worth more now than what they still owe on it is at the highest level in five years of regular tracking. Sixty-two percent (62%) say that, compared to when they bought it, their home is already worth more now, tying the all-time high last reached in October 2011. 

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