Americans' views on the current state of the U.S. economy and its direction remain negative and show no signs of change through Wednesday night, Jan. 23. New Gallup data combining interviewing conducted Jan. 20, 22, and 23 show that only 23% of Americans rate the U.S. economy as excellent or good, while 31% rate it as poor. Eighty-two percent continue to say the U.S. economy is getting worse. The economy has dominated the news this week, with Tuesday's dramatic Federal Reserve Board rate cut and Wednesday's even more dramatic up-and-down movement of the stock market. But there is no sign that any of this has affected consumers' views of the economy so far. Gallup will continue to monitor consumer confidence to see how the major forces currently at play in the national and world economy affect consumer perceptions of the U.S. economy's direction. -- Frank Newport
Survey Methods
These results are based on telephone interviews with 2,031 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted Jan. 20, 22, and 23, 2008. For results based on this sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±2 percentage points. Other results are based on rolling averages of three nights of telephone interviews with a combined sample of approximately 3,000 national adults for each average, aged 18 and older. For results based on these three-night samples, the maximum margin of sampling error is ±2 percentage points.
In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.
