The closer to home one gets, the more likely people are to think things are going pretty well. Nationally, just one-quarter (23%) of Americans believe things in the country are going in the right direction while seven in ten (69%) Americans think things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track. (Please see Harris Poll #17 for multi-year trend on Right Direction/Wrong Track of country) Looking at a more local perspective, i.e., the state one lives in, two in five (44%) adults think things in their state are going in the right direction, while virtually half (49%) believe they are going off on the wrong track. As for their own personal lives, those are going pretty well. Three-quarters of Americans (76%) say things in their life personally are going in the right direction while just 17 percent say they have gotten pretty seriously of on the wrong track.
These are some of the results from the latest Harris Poll of 1,030 U.S. adults surveyed by telephone between February 6 and 10, 2008 by Harris Interactive
®.
Other findings include:
- Those in the East are more likely to believe the country is on the wrong track (78%) as well as their state (59%). Those in the South are more likely to believe the country is going in the right direction (29%) as well as their state (48%);
- Across the board, Republicans are more likely to believe things in the country (45%), their state (54%) and their lives personally (84%) are going in the right direction than Democrats and Independents. Independents are slightly more likely than Democrats (81% versus 76%) to believe things in the country have gotten off on the wrong track;
- While at least seven in ten of each of the income categories believes the country has gotten off on the wrong track, there are differences for state and personal lives. Over half of those with a household income of $100,000 or more (54%) believe things in their state are going in the right direction, while at least half of all other income categories believe they have gotten off on the wrong track. Three in ten (31%) of those with a household income of less than $35,000 believe their lives personally have gotten off on the wrong track while just about one in ten of the higher income categories believes the same;
- Education and how things are going in one
’s personal life also go together. While two-thirds (67%) of those with a high school or less education say things in their lives are going in the right direction, that jumps to nine in ten (90%) of those with a post graduate degree.
|
TABLE 1
RIGHT DIRECTION VERSUS WRONG TRACK OF COUNTRY
“Generally speaking, would you say that things in the country are going in the right direction, or have they pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track?
” |
|
Base: All adults |
| |
Total |
|
Region |
|
Political Party |
| |
East |
|
Midwest |
|
South |
|
West |
|
Rep. |
|
Dem. |
|
Ind. |
| % |
|
% |
|
% |
|
% |
|
% |
|
% |
|
% |
|
% |
| Right Direction |
23 |
|
17 |
|
21 |
|
29 |
|
24 |
|
45 |
|
14 |
|
14 |
| Wrong Track |
69 |
|
78 |
|
68 |
|
64 |
|
69 |
|
48 |
|
76 |
|
81 |
| No opinion |
3 |
|
4 |
|
5 |
|
2 |
|
2 |
|
3 |
|
6 |
|
1 |
| Don
’t Know/Refused |
4 |
|
1 |
|
6 |
|
5 |
|
4 |
|
5 |
|
4 |
|
3 |
Note: Percentages may not add to 100% due to rounding
|
TABLE 2
RIGHT DIRECTION VERSUS WRONG TRACK OF COUNTRY
– BY INCOME
“Generally speaking, would you say that things in the country are going in the right direction, or have they pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track?
” |
|
Base: All adults |
| |
Total |
|
Household Income |
| |
Less than
$35k |
|
$35k-
$49.9k |
|
$50k-
$74.9k |
|
$75k-
$99.9k |
|
$100k+ |
| % |
|
% |
|
% |
|
% |
|
% |
|
% |
| Right Direction |
23 |
|
20 |
|
22 |
|
18 |
|
25 |
|
23 |
| Wrong Track |
69 |
|
74 |
|
72 |
|
74 |
|
70 |
|
69 |
| No opinion |
3 |
|
2 |
|
2 |
|
5 |
|
2 |
|
4 |
| Don
’t Know/Refused |
4 |
|
4 |
|
3 |
|
3 |
|
4 |
|
4 |
Note: Percentages may not add to 100% due to rounding
|
TABLE 3
RIGHT DIRECTION VERSUS WRONG TRACK OF STATE
“Generally speaking, would you say that things in your state are going in the right direction, or have they pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track?
” |
|
Base: All adults |
| |
Total |
|
Region |
|
Political Party |
| |
East |
|
Midwest |
|
South |
|
West |
|
Rep. |
|
Dem. |
|
Ind. |
| % |
|
% |
|
% |
|
% |
|
% |
|
% |
|
% |
|
% |
| Right Direction |
44 |
|
36 |
|
42 |
|
48 |
|
47 |
|
54 |
|
37 |
|
41 |
| Wrong Track |
49 |
|
59 |
|
50 |
|
44 |
|
45 |
|
38 |
|
54 |
|
53 |
| No opinion |
3 |
|
2 |
|
3 |
|
2 |
|
5 |
|
3 |
|
3 |
|
2 |
| Don
’t Know/Refused |
5 |
|
3 |
|
5 |
|
6 |
|
4 |
|
5 |
|
6 |
|
4 |
Note: Percentages may not add to 100% due to rounding
|
TABLE 4
RIGHT DIRECTION VERSUS WRONG TRACK OF STATE
– by income
“Generally speaking, would you say that things in your state are going in the right direction, or have they pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track?
” |
|
Base: All adults |
| |
Total |
|
Household Income |
| |
Less than
$35k |
|
$35k-
$49.9k |
|
$50k-
$74.9k |
|
$75k-
$99.9k |
|
$100k+ |
| % |
|
% |
|
% |
|
% |
|
% |
|
% |
| Right Direction |
44 |
|
35 |
|
40 |
|
41 |
|
46 |
|
54 |
| Wrong Track |
49 |
|
52 |
|
56 |
|
54 |
|
51 |
|
40 |
| No opinion |
3 |
|
4 |
|
1 |
|
3 |
|
1 |
|
4 |
| Don
’t Know/Refused |
5 |
|
9 |
|
3 |
|
2 |
|
2 |
|
2 |
Note: Percentages may not add to 100% due to rounding
|
TABLE 5
RIGHT DIRECTION VERSUS WRONG TRACK OF PERSONAL LIFE
“Would you say that things in your life personally are going in the right direction, or have they pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track?
” |
|
Base: All adults |
| |
Total |
|
HS or
Less |
|
Some
College |
|
College
Grad |
|
Post
Grad |
|
Rep. |
|
Dem. |
|
Ind. |
| % |
|
% |
|
% |
|
% |
|
% |
|
% |
|
% |
|
% |
| Right Direction |
76 |
|
67 |
|
80 |
|
87 |
|
90 |
|
84 |
|
73 |
|
73 |
| Wrong Track |
17 |
|
24 |
|
14 |
|
10 |
|
8 |
|
14 |
|
22 |
|
15 |
| No opinion |
3 |
|
3 |
|
2 |
|
2 |
|
* |
|
1 |
|
2 |
|
4 |
| Don
’t Know/Refused |
4 |
|
6 |
|
4 |
|
1 |
|
2 |
|
1 |
|
3 |
|
8 |
Note: Percentages may not add to 100% due to rounding
Note: * indicates less than 0.5%
|
TABLE 6
RIGHT DIRECTION VERSUS WRONG TRACK OF PERSONAL LIFE
– BY INCOME
“Would you say that things in your life personally are going in the right direction, or have they pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track?
” |
|
Base: All adults |
| |
Total |
|
Less than
$35k |
|
$35k-
$49.9k |
|
$50k-
$74.9k |
|
$75k-
$99.9k |
|
$100k+ |
| % |
|
% |
|
% |
|
% |
|
% |
|
% |
| Right Direction |
76 |
|
63 |
|
83 |
|
85 |
|
89 |
|
88 |
| Wrong Track |
17 |
|
31 |
|
13 |
|
9 |
|
8 |
|
11 |
| No opinion |
3 |
|
1 |
|
2 |
|
5 |
|
3 |
|
1 |
| Don
’t Know/Refused |
4 |
|
5 |
|
2 |
|
1 |
|
- |
|
1 |
Note: Percentages may not add to 100% due to rounding
Note: - indicates no response
Methodology
The Harris Poll
® was conducted by telephone within the United States between February 6 and 10, 2008 among a nationwide cross section of 1,030 adults (aged 18 and over). Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region, number of adults in the household, size of place (urbanicity) and number of phone lines in the household were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population.
All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore, Harris Interactive avoids the words
“margin of error
” as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100% response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal.
