Gallup.com Year in Review

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Gallup.com reviews some of the top findings of 2012, spanning political, economic, well-being, and world news.

January

• The battle for the GOP presidential nomination is historically volatile, with the lead in Gallup polling changing seven times since May.
• Residents in the EU's most troubled economies give their leaders some of the lowest approval ratings in the region.
• Gallup finds financially well-off Egyptians growing less hopeful that their life will improve as a result of former President Hosni Mubarak's resignation.
• Americans' economic confidence improves to a seven-month high, largely driven by the increasing belief that the economy is getting better.
• Gallup finds more American adults uninsured in 2011 than in any year since Gallup and Healthways started tracking it in 2008.

February

• Gallup reports that more U.S. states were either solidly or leaning Republican in 2011, compared with 2010.
• North Dakota has the best job market in the U.S., based on employee reports of hiring and firing at their place of work.
• Gallup finds that, unlike disengaged workers, workers who are engaged in their jobs are immune from higher stress and worry when faced with long commutes.
• Gallup finds perceptions of personal safety have declined significantly in several Arab Spring countries.
• Young Qataris are more likely than their peers in the GCC to say they plan to start a business in the next 12 months.

March

• Americans' satisfaction with the way things are going in the country improves to a 10-month high.
• Mitt Romney surges in the GOP nomination race to lead Rick Santorum by double digits.
• Gallup data links clean drinking water to food security in sub-Saharan Africa.
• Americans are closely split about whether energy development or environmental protection should take priority.
• Residents of Provo-Orem, Utah, are the most likely among 190 metro areas nationwide to say their city or area is getting better as a place to live.
• Gallup finds that weekly churchgoers report more positive daily emotions, especially on Sundays.

April

• The percentage of 18- to 25-year-old Americans who do not have health insurance levels off at roughly 24%, after declining since the U.S. healthcare law provision allowing adults up to age 26 to stay on their parents' plans took effect in September.
• Gallup economic indicators signal improving economic conditions.
• Gallup reveals that 24% of adults worldwide were thriving in 2011, while 13% were suffering.
• A new study by Gallup and the World Bank reveals that 50% of adults worldwide report having a bank account at a formal financial institution.
• A record-low 62% of Americans say they own their own home.

May

• Two years after the major BP oil spill off the Gulf of Mexico, residents of Gulf Coast-facing counties continue to suffer from lower overall emotional health.
• Americans are more closely divided than ever over whether same-sex marriages should be legal.
• One in three U.S. workers aged 18-29 are underemployed.
• Registered voters are nearly twice as likely to say Barack Obama, rather than Mitt Romney, is the more likable of the two presidential candidates.
• As Egyptians prepare to vote in their first presidential election since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, 82% expect the election to be fair and honest.

June

• Gallup research reveals that people living in Iraq are the most likely worldwide to experience a lot of negative emotions on a daily basis.
• Americans' confidence in U.S. banks falls to a record-low 21%.
• Americans' confidence in the nation's public schools falls to a new low of 29%.
• Gallup finds that sub-Saharan Africans with a secondary education are less likely to live in poverty.
• Six percent of Americans name healthcare the country's top problem as the U.S. Supreme Court rules to uphold the Affordable Care Act.

July

• Gallup finds that women worldwide are as likely as men to be thriving, despite significant gender gaps in employment, perceptions of safety, and physical health.
• In Spain, confidence in the country's financial institutions and banks plummets to a new low.
• U.S. President Barack Obama's job approval rating improves for the third straight quarter.
• Americans are, for the first time, much more likely to see obesity as a more serious societal issue than cigarettes.
• Gallup finds that engaged workers feel nearly as good on weekdays, including Mondays, as they do on weekends.

August

• Gallup finds that views about local job markets have almost fully rebounded to pre-recession levels in all regions, except for Europe.
• In 15 U.S. states, at least one in five adults say they struggled to afford the food they needed at least once during the past 12 months.
• Nearly half of U.S. adults doubt or are unsure that today's college graduates are ready for the world of work.
• As the 2012 presidential conventions get underway, Gallup reports that the pre-convention leader tends to win.
• A Gallup analysis finds that Utah is poised to be the best state to live in the future.

September

• Gallup's new "Payroll to Population" measure reveals that 27% of the world's adults were employed full time for an employer in 2011.
• Many key economic and mood indicators are more positive now than in February 2009 when President Barack Obama first took office.
• Gallup finds a dramatic upward shift in Democrats' and independents' economic confidence, starting on opening night of the Democratic National Convention.
• As anti-U.S. protests sweep across the Middle East, Gallup reveals that U.S. leadership had already grown less popular there.
• Gallup finds the majority of American adults say they are not able to use their strengths to do what they do best throughout the day.

October

• Mitt Romney pulls even in the presidential race among registered voters after a historic win in the first debate.
• Americans' economic confidence improves to the highest level since late May.
• Mitt Romney holds a slight edge over Barack Obama in Gallup's initial "likely voter" estimate, while preferences tilt in Obama's favor among registered voters. A majority of Americans think Obama will win.
• Gallup finds that Americans who like where they live are in better health.
• The inaugural results of a new Gallup question find that 3.4% of U.S. adults identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.

November

• Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are within one percentage point of each other in Gallup's final pre-election survey of likely voters. Democrats edge out Republicans, 49% to 48%, in likely voters' party preferences for Congress, suggesting Republicans will hold the House of Representatives.
• Gallup finds that Singaporeans are the least likely in the world to report experiencing emotions of any kind on a daily basis.
• The jobs outlook across the European Union deteriorates, with more than nine in 10 residents in Greece, Italy, Ireland, and Spain saying it is a bad time to find a job.
• Gallup finds that entrepreneurs are less likely than other workers to report having ever been diagnosed with chronic health problems.
• U.S. consumers' holiday spending intentions are roughly the same as in 2011.

December

• Nearly two-thirds of Americans want federal government leaders to compromise on an agreement to avoid the "fiscal cliff" by the Jan. 1 deadline.
• U.S. small-business owners' hiring intentions plunge to the lowest level since the recession.
• Gallup's more than 1 million surveys worldwide reveal that a country's Payroll to Population rate and thriving rate are strongly relate to GDP and to each other.
• Gallup finds that Latin Americans are the most positive people in the world, with their region being home to eight of the top 10 countries for positive emotions worldwide.
• President Barack Obama's job approval rating rises to 56%, the highest level since 2009.

Stay with Gallup.com for more news and reactions to the news in 2013.