Gallup.com Year in Review

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Gallup.com reviews some of the most defining findings of 2010, spanning political, economic, well-being, and world news.

January

• President Barack Obama begins his second year as president with 50% of Americans approving of his job performance, having finished his first year with most polarized ratings in Gallup history.
• Following Republican Scott Brown's election to the U.S. Senate, 55% of American favor Congress' halting current healthcare reform efforts and considering other alternatives.
• The vast majority of Americans think it will be at least two years before the U.S. economy starts to recover.
• Haitians' attitudes reveal widespread vulnerability in the wake of a devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake.

February

• Gallup's party identification data by state shows that despite GOP gains, most states remain blue.
• Gallup's new daily measure of U.S. employment reveals the underemployed spending 36% less than the employed.
• Hawaii tops Utah for as the U.S. state with the highest overall well-being.
• Gallup's worldwide research reveals that those with links to family or friends abroad are the most likely to say they would like to migrate permanently.

March

• President Obama's job approval rating falls to its lowest yet amid healthcare debate, but recovers to 51% after the legislation passes.
• More Americans support than oppose Congress' passage of healthcare legislation.
• A new high of 48% of Americans say they view the seriousness of global warming as generally exaggerated.
• The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index reveals that residents of the nation's most obese metro areas engage in fewer healthy behaviors and have worse physical health.
• As Greece struggles financially, Gallup Eurobarometer surveys reveal that Greeks are the most likely in the EU to say they struggle paying their bills.

April

• Republicans move ahead of Democrats in voters' 2010 election preferences for the first time.
• Twenty-eight percent of Americans call themselves supporters of the Tea Party movement.
• Gallup tracking shows signs of economic improvement across separate measures of employment, job creation, consumer spending, and economic confidence.
• The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index finds higher rates of cancer among those who have also been diagnosed with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or diabetes.
• More Americans favor than oppose Arizona's new immigration law.
• Americans place a higher priority on energy production over environmental protection for the first time.

 

May

• Gallup tracking finds the U.S. federal government outpacing the private sector in job creation.
• Americans' acceptance of gay relations crosses the 50% threshold for the first time.
• The 2009-2010 flu season closes with cold and flu rates far below the previous year.
• Gallup finds Colombians reporting more murders of close friends or family than those in most Latin American countries surveyed.

June

• Americans name federal debt and terrorism as the most serious threats to the future well-being of the country.
• U.S. voters say a candidate's stance on national issues matter more to their vote for Congress than what they can do locally, by the widest margin in Gallup history.
• Upper-income consumers show some frugality fatigue, spending more in May than in any month since January 2009.
• Renewed positivity sends the U.S. Well-Being Index to a new high.
• Gallup finds roughly 6.2 million Mexicans would move permanently to the U.S. if they had the chance.

 

July

• Congress ranks last in Gallup's annual confidence in institutions poll, with a record-low 11% saying they have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence.
• President Obama's job approval rating falls to 38% among independents.
• The U.S. drinking rate edges up slightly to a 25-year high.
• Gallup finds high home Internet access across several regions of the globe.

 

August

• Blacks and whites continue to differ sharply on President Obama's job performance.
• Elena Kagan is confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court, with 46% of Americans in favor, the lowest level of support for a recent successful nominee.
• Republicans take an unprecedented 10-point lead on Gallup's generic ballot for Congress.
• Americans are evenly divided about whether the federal government should maintain a moratorium on most offshore oil drilling in the Gulf following the BP oil spill.
• The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index reveals that well-being declines as commute times increase.
• Gallup finds that the population of some countries would double or even triple if all adults worldwide who wanted to migrate permanently moved where they would like.

September

• Americans give Republicans the edge on most election issues as the midterm congressional elections approach.
• The financial reform bill is the only one of five major pieces of legislation passed by Congress in the past two years that a majority of Americans support.
• Americans' distrust in the media to report the news fully, accurately, and fairly edges up to a record high.
• Gallup finds Gulf Coast-facing counties experiencing a decline in overall well-being and an increase in diagnoses of depression in the 15 weeks following the BP oil spill.
• Gallup's global surveys reveal that religiosity is highest in the world's poorest nations.

October

• The 2010 electorate heading into the midterm elections looks more Republican than in the past.
• "Too big," "confused," and "corrupt" are the words Americans most often use to describe the federal government.
• Unemployment, as measured by Gallup, jumped sharply to 10.1% in September.
• The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index documents that very religious Americans have higher well-being than those who are moderately religious or not religious.
• Gallup's global surveys document that worldwide, financial comfort grows more important with age.

November

• Americans express record-high levels of enthusiasm about voting in the midterm congressional elections in which Republicans are poised to win big.
• No clear front-runner emerges for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.
• Gallup's Job Creation Index finds larger U.S. companies while smaller businesses shed jobs.
• The Gallup-Healthway Well-Being Index marks one million surveys, revealing an unprecedented level of detail about Americans' well-being and health.
• As U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron announces his desire to track his citizens' well-being, Gallup reveals that Britons' well-being held largely steady during recent years of economic turmoil.

December

• As Congress debates a compromise deal to extend the Bush tax cuts to all Americans and to extend unemployment benefits, 66% of Americans express support for each idea.
• Congress' job approval rating declines to 13%, the worst in Gallup history.
• Americans name Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton as the most admired man and woman of the year.
• Consumer spending in the East and Midwest drops sharply after Christmas following a crippling blizzard, while the West and South largely maintain at pre-Christmas levels.
• A new low of 44.8% of Americans get their healthcare coverage from their employer.
• Gallup global surveys reveal that a median of 31% of world citizens have at some point in the last year struggled to afford adequate shelter or housing.

 

Stay with Gallup.com for more news and reactions to the news in 2011.

Survey Methods

Gallup surveys 1,000 national adults, aged 18 and older, every day and also conducts additional surveys. In most cases, the maximum margin of sampling error is ±2 to ±4 percentage points. For detailed survey methods on any results reported here, please visit the original story.

Interviews are conducted with respondents on land-line telephones (for respondents with a land-line telephone) and cellular phones (for respondents who are cell-phone only).

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.