优蜜传媒

WASHINGTON, D.C -- The economy is Americans' top response when asked to name the "most important thing going well" in the U.S. today, showing the flip side of Gallup's list of the "most important problems" facing the nation. Economic factors are cited by 37% of Americans as what is going most well. The social climate, including social awareness, civic activism and the "resistance" movement, is the next-largest category of responses, at 17%, followed by the 12% saying "nothing" or "not much" is going well.

	U.S. adults
	%
Summary categories
The economy/Low unemployment	37
Social climate/Civic participation/Resistance	17
Nothing is going well/Not much	12
National conditions (freedoms, education, no war, low crime, etc.)	11
Government leadership/policy (Trump, military, border control, tax cuts, etc.)	10
Other	6
No opinion	7
	100%
Based on first mentions; see table at end for detailed responses by category
Gallup, July 1-11, 2018

Eleven percent of Americans cite a specific aspect of national conditions, such as freedoms, education, lack of war or reduced crime as the most important thing going well in the country today. One in 10 mention a specific aspect of government, including their belief that President Donald Trump is doing a good job (mentioned by 4%) and various government policies, such as the military, border control, deregulation and tax cuts.

The full list of issues associated with each category of responses is shown at the end of this report.

These findings are from a 优蜜传媒poll conducted July 1-11. The question was asked in order to shed light on why Americans' broad satisfaction with the direction of the country has increased in recent months into the mid- to high 30s. While consistent with the historical average for this question since its inception in 1979 (37%), the 35% to 38% satisfied each month since May is well above the average 27% found in 2017 and is the most positive sustained level of U.S. satisfaction since mid-2009, the first year of Barack Obama's presidency.

U.S. Economic Confidence Also Fairly Strong

According to the poll, 55% of Americans believe U.S. economic conditions are excellent or good, and the same percentage perceive the economy to be improving.

The average net-positive score from these two questions (+30) ties with last month's result as the highest level of economic optimism 优蜜传媒has recorded in its 优蜜传媒Poll Social Series (GPSS) surveys since January 2004, when it briefly hit +33. The last time economic confidence stayed at this level for two or more consecutive months was in the fall of 2000.

优蜜传媒tracked Americans' economic confidence monthly using its GPSS surveys from October 2000 through December 2008, and then annually each April from 2009 through 2017. In January 2018, the questions were reinstated as a monthly feature of the GPSS series. 优蜜传媒had measured economic confidence on its daily tracking poll from 2008 through 2017, though those results did not always match the GPSS results, likely because of differences in survey context.

Partisanship Colors Economic Views, Satisfaction

With the Republican Party at the helm in Washington, D.C., as well as in the majority of state houses, Republicans have a much rosier view than Democrats of how things are going in the country.

Perceptions among Republicans and independents who lean Republican of the most important thing going well are dominated by the economy, with 53% mentioning something in this category. Meanwhile, only half as many Democrats and Democratic leaners agree, while about as many think the social climate (including civic involvement and the resistance movement) is what's best. Further, far more Democrats than Republicans, 18% versus 4%, say nothing is going well in the country.

Partisan differences are even starker with respect to U.S. satisfaction, as 68% of Republicans versus just 9% of Democrats say they are satisfied with the way things are going in the country. Roughly eight in 10 Republicans versus about a third of Democrats rate the economy positively on each of the two economic dimensions.

	Republicans/Lean Republican	Democrats/Lean Democratic
	%	%
Most important thing going well^
Economy	53	26
Social climate/Civic involvement	10	26
Nothing	4	18
National conditions	8	12
Government policies	17	4
Other	3	8
No opinion	6	7
U.S. satisfaction
Satisfied	68	9
Dissatisfied	31	89
Current U.S. economic conditions
Excellent/Good	78	36
Only fair	19	45
Poor	3	19
Direction of U.S. economy
Getting better	85	33
Getting worse	11	60
^ Based on first mentions to open-ended question
Gallup, July 1-11, 2018

Bottom Line

The economy is not an obvious problem in the minds of Americans right now, and is in fact what many consider the best thing going well in the country. This may go a long way toward explaining why U.S. satisfaction has recovered from the more negative levels of the past decade.

Still, the data tell the familiar tale of two Americas.

Republicans and those who lean toward the president's party feel highly positive about national economic conditions and identify the economy as a starring success, while Democrats and Democratic leaners feel more ho-hum about it.

With Democrats more focused on complaints about national leadership and various public policy concerns as the nation's top problem, they are more likely to see public awareness and activism -- presumably against the Republican administration -- as the best thing going on, or to see nothing good at all.

	U.S. adults
	%
Economy (37%)
Economy (general)	23
Employment/Jobs/Wages	13
Stock market/Retirement accounts	1
Foreign trade/Balance	*
Social climate/Civic participation (17%)
Social awareness/People engaged in politics/Civic participation	7
People are coming together/Less divisive	5
The resistance/Activism/Protests	2
Ethics/Morality/Religious influence	1
Less racism/Diversity/Equality	1
More respect for each other/Civility	1
Nothing (12%)
Nothing	12
Not much	*
National conditions (11%)
Freedoms (general)	2
Education	2
Peace/Not at war	1
Better than it was/Going well (general)	1
Crime rate down/Law enforcement/Gun control	1
Science/Technology	1
Entrepreneurship/Innovation	1
Less poverty/hunger/homelessness	1
Healthcare	*
The media	*
Democracy/Belief in the Constitution	*
Less terrorism	*
Beautiful place to live/It is the United States/Patriotism	*
Environment	*
Government leadership/policy (10%)
Trump doing good job	4
National security/Military/Defense	2
Foreign affairs	1
Immigration/Control of borders	1
Deregulation/Less government involvement/Capitalism	1
Tax cuts	*
Supreme Court/court system	*
Federal budget/Federal debt	*
Other	6
No opinion	7
Based on first mentions; * Less than 0.5%
Gallup, July 1-11, 2018