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 September 28.

The number who say the country is heading in the right direction is unchanged from the previous week and has been below 30% most weeks during the past year. 

Sixty-five percent (65%) of voters now believe the nation is headed down the wrong track. That's also unchanged from the previous survey. 

A year ago at this time, 28% said the country was heading in the right direction, while 63% thought it was going down the wrong track. But two weeks later during the partial federal government shutdown, confidence in the country’s course fell to 13%, the lowest finding in five years, while 80% said the country was on the wrong track.

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The national telephone survey of 3,500 Likely Voters was conducted by Rasmussen Reports on September 22-28, 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 69% of voters not affiliated with either major political party think the country is on the wrong track. Democrats are evenly divided.

Seventy percent (70%) of whites and 58% of other minority voters say the country is headed down the wrong track. Blacks are closely divided.

Sixty percent (62%) of the Political Class believe the country is headed in the right direction, but 75% of Mainstream voters disagree. 

Eighty-seven percent (87%) of conservatives and 61% of moderates say the country is headed down the wrong track. Liberals disagree by a 47% to 40% margin.

The Rasmussen Employment Index which measures worker confidence fell slightly in September after reaching an all-time high in August.

Most Americans still consider military service good for young people but know fewer people who have joined the military out of frustration with the job market.

Voters strongly oppose full legal rights and government benefits for illegal immigrants. 

Most voters still view the national health care law unfavorably. 

Sixty-five percent (65%) of Americans are confident that the U.S. public health system will be able to contain Ebola disease if it breaks out in this country, but that was prior to this week's discovery of the first case in this country in Dallas.

Seventy-one percent (71%) consider sexual violence at colleges and universities a serious problem, but only 39% think new codes of conduct for sexual activity being established by many schools are likely to reduce the problem.

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