U.S. Economic Confidence Index Static at -15

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Americans' confidence in the U.S. economy remains steady, with Gallup's U.S. Economic Confidence Index averaging -15 for the week ending May 22. This is similar to the -14 to -16 weekly scores recorded since late April.

Americans' confidence in the economy was decidedly less negative a year ago when the weekly index ranged from -5 to -9 throughout May and June. But in late August, the index dropped to -17 amid turmoil in China's stock market. After that brief dip, confidence stabilized, ranging from -10 to -15 in all but two weekly readings from September through March. More recently, however, Americans' confidence in the economy has dipped slightly lower, with weekly readings nearing the low from August 2015.

From a long-term perspective, confidence is well above most of the readings Gallup has taken since 2008.

Gallup's U.S. Economic Confidence Index is the average of two components: how Americans rate current economic conditions and whether they feel the economy is improving or getting worse. The index has a theoretical maximum of +100 if all Americans say the economy is doing well and improving, and a theoretical minimum of -100 if all Americans say the economy is doing poorly and getting worse.

For the week ending May 22, the current conditions score matched the -5 from the prior three weeks -- the result of 25% of U.S. adults rating the current economy as "excellent" or "good," and 30% rating it as "poor." This component has not changed much over the past year, with Americans holding slightly negative views of the current state of the economy.

Americans' outlook of the U.S. economy has varied much more than the current conditions score over the past year, ranging from a low of -25 to a high of -9. The latest economic outlook score of -24 is on the lower end of that range -- the result of 36% of U.S. adults saying the economy is "getting better" and 60% saying it is "getting worse."

Bottom Line

The U.S. economy might be showing enough signs of growth for the Federal Reserve to feel comfortable raising interest rates, but that doesn't mean Americans -- who remain negative in their views of the economy -- see such signs of growth. The past month has been a rough one for the stock market, and gas prices are on the rise, giving Americans little reason to assess the economy less negatively than they have in recent weeks.

These data are available in Gallup Analytics.

Survey Methods

Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted May 16-22, 2016, on the Gallup U.S. Daily survey, with a random sample of 3,539 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is ±1 percentage point at the 95% confidence level. All reported margins of sampling error include computed design effects for weighting.

Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 60% cellphone respondents and 40% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods.

Learn more about how Gallup Daily tracking works.