Latest Bush Approval Rating at 37%

GALLUP NEWS SERVICE

PRINCETON, NJ -- The latest Gallup Poll finds George W. Bush's presidential job approval rating at 37%, consistent with recent polling. His approval rating has bounced between 36% and 40% since early June, after hitting a personal low of 31% in May.

In the Aug. 7-10, 2006 Gallup Poll, 37% of Americans say they approve and 59% disapprove of the job Bush is doing as president. He has averaged 38% approval since the beginning of June, after averaging 32% in May.

It is unclear what impact the recent terrorism developments will have on Bush's public support, though the initial indications are that it will not help much. While the poll was in the field, British officials broke up a terrorist plot to use liquid explosives to blow up airplanes traveling between Great Britain and the United States. Most of the poll's interviews were conducted before this news broke, but interviews conducted after the news became public were only slightly more favorable to Bush than those conducted before. Newsweek and CBS News polls conducted entirely after the revelation of the thwarted attack show Bush with 38% and 36% approval ratings, respectively.

Patterns of Support for Bush

Because Bush's approval ratings have remained fairly stable for more than two months, data from June through August can be combined to allow for in-depth of analysis of which groups are more or less likely to support him. The following table shows how Bush fares among key demographic and political groups.

Bush still maintains the support of 8 in 10 Republicans, with conservative Republicans (84%) showing stronger support than liberal or moderate Republicans (63%). Fewer than 1 in 10 Democrats (9%) approve of Bush, including 19% of conservative Democrats, 10% of moderate Democrats, and just 4% of liberal Democrats. About 3 in 10 independents approve of Bush.

Besides these political groups, Bush gets stronger support from regular churchgoers (49% of weekly attendees and 41% of monthly attendees), those who are married (44%), southerners (44%), rural residents (43%), non-Hispanic whites (42%), and men (42%).

Just 14% of blacks and 22% of nonwhites more generally approve of Bush. Those who seldom or never attend religious services (29%) also show low levels of support for Bush, as do those in lower income households (less than $30,000 annual household income, at 29%). Bush manages just 30% support among eastern residents, non-married individuals, and urban residents.

These differences in support by group have been fairly typical for Bush since he has been president.

Survey Methods

These results are based on telephone interviews with a randomly selected national sample of 1,007 adults, aged 18 and older, conducted August 7-10, 2006. For results based on this sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum error attributable to sampling and other random effects is ±3 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.