APPROVAL RATING

An 'approval rating' is a polling term which reflects the percent of respondents to an opinion poll who approve of a particular person or program. Most often an approval rating is given to a political figure based on responses to a poll in which a sample of people are asked whether they approve or disapprove of that particular political figure. A typical question might ask:
:''"Which of the following best describes your opinion of the things President George W. Bush has done: strongly approve, somewhat approve, somewhat disapprove, strongly disapprove, or no opinion/undecided."''
Like most surveys that predict public opinion, the approval rating is subjective. Many unscientific approval rating systems exist that skew popular opinion. However, the approval rating is generally accepted as the general opinion of the people.

Contents

Presidential job approval in the United States

Current President (George W. Bush):

Historical comparison:

Highest approval rating:

Lowest approval rating:

Approval rating never below a level during the president term in office:

Biggest approval rating difference during the president term in office:

Highest disapproval rating:

Related concepts

References

See also

External links

Presidential job approval in the United States

In the United States, presidential job approval ratings were introduced by George Gallup in the late 1930s (probably 1937) to gauge public support for the president during his presidency.

Current President (George W. Bush):

Polling group's ★ last poll for the President George W. Bush:
Date(''newest first'')	Polling Group	Approval	Disapproval	Other
'7/18-21/2007'	American Research Group	25%	71%	4%
'7/14-16/2007'	Rasmussen	39%	58%	3%
'7/11-12/2007'	Newsweek	29%	64%	7%
'7/9-11/2007'	Associated Press/Ipsos	33%	65%	2%
'7/6-8/2007'	Gallup	29%	66%	5%
'6/26-28/2007'	CBSNews	27%	65%	8%
'6/26-27/2007'	FOXNews/Opinion Dynamics	31%	60%	9%
'6/22-24/2007'	CNN/Opinion Research	32%	66%	3%
'6/8-11/2007'	NBC/WSJ	29%	66%	5%
'6/7-10/2007'	LA Times/Bloomberg	34%	62%	4%
'6/5-11/2007'	Quinnipiac	28%	65%	7%
'5/30-6/3/2007'	Pew Research	29%	61%	10%
'5/29-6/1/2007'	ABCNews/Washington Post	35%	62%	3%
'5/16-20/2007'	Diageo/Hotline	32%	64%	4%
★ References in the other table

Polling group's last poll for the President George W. Bush:
Polling Group (''Alphabetically'')	Date	Approval	Disapproval	Other
'ABCNews/Washington Post'[2]	5/29-6/1/2007	35%	62%	3%
'American Research Group'[3]	7/18-21/2007	25%	71%	4%
'Associated Press/Ipsos'[4]	7/9-11/2007	33%	65%	2%
'Battleground'[5]	1/8-11/2007	42%	54%	3%
'CBSNews'[6]	6/26-28/2007	27%	65%	8%
'CNN/Opinion Research'[7]	6/22-24/2007	32%	66%	3%
'Democracy Corps'[8]	3/20-25/2007	37%	58%	5%
'Diageo/Hotline'[9]	5/16-20/2007	32%	64%	4%
'FOXNews/Opinion Dynamics'[10]	6/26-27/2007	31%	60%	9%
'Gallup'[1]	7/6-8/2007	29%	66%	5%
'LA Times/Bloomberg'[12]	6/7-10/2007	34%	62%	4%
'NBC/WSJ'[13]	6/8-11/2007	29%	66%	5%
'Newsweek'[14]	7/11-12/2007	29%	64%	7%
'NPR'[15]	4/26-29/2007	37%	59%	5%
'Pew Research'[16]	5/30-6/3/2007	29%	61%	10%
'Quinnipiac'[17]	6/5-11/2007	28%	65%	7%
'Rasmussen'[18]	7/14-16/2007	39%	58%	3%
'Time/SRBI'[19]	4/5-9/2007	33%	59%	8%
'WNBC/Marist'[20]	4/26-5/1/2007	33%	61%	6%

Polling group's graphs of approval rating for the President George W. Bush:

Historical comparison:

Historical approval highs and lows for each President since 1937:
President	Highest Approval	Lowest Approval
Bush (G.W.)	'92' 10/8-9/01,ABC Poll[2]	'25' 7/18-21/07, ARG Poll[26]
Clinton	'73' 1/28/98 CBS/NYTimes Poll '73' 12/19-20/98, USA Today/CNN/ Gallup Poll	'36' 5/26-27/93, Yank/Time/CNN Poll
Bush (G.H.W.)	'89' 2/28/-3/3/91, Gallup Poll	'29' 7/31-8/2/92, Gallup Poll
Reagan	'68' 5/8-11/81, Gallup Poll '68' 5/16-19/86, Gallup Poll	'35' 1/28-31/83, Gallup Poll
Carter	'75' 3/18-21/77, Gallup Poll	'28' 6/29-7/2/79, Gallup Poll
Ford	'74' 8/16-19/74, Gallup Poll	'37' 1/10-13/75, Gallup Poll '37' 3/28-31/75, Gallup Poll
Nixon	'67' 11/12-17/69, Gallup Poll '67' 1/26-29/73, Gallup Poll	'24' 7/12-15/1974, Gallup Poll '24' 8/2-5/1974, Gallup Poll
Johnson	'80' 2/28-3/5/64, Gallup Poll	'35' 8/7-12/68, Gallup Poll
Kennedy	'80' 3/8-13/62, Gallup Poll	'56' 9/12-17/63, Gallup Poll
Eisenhower	'79' 12/14-19/56, Gallup Poll	'48' 3/27-4/1/58, Gallup Poll
Truman	'87' 6/1-5/45, Gallup Poll	'22' 2/9-14/52, Gallup Poll
Roosevelt	'84' 1/8-13/42, Gallup Poll	'48' 8/18-24/39, Gallup Poll

Highest approval rating:

George W. Bush holds the record with 92% (10/8-9/2001 -- after the September 11 attacks).

George H.W. Bush is second highest, with 89% (2/28/-3/3/1991 -- after the Gulf War).

Harry S. Truman is third highest, with 87% (6/1-5/1945 -- after the End of World War II in Europe).

Franklin D. Roosevelt is fourth highest, with 84% (1/8-13/1942 -- after the Attack on Pearl Harbor).

Lowest approval rating:

Harry S. Truman holds the record with 22% (2/9-14/1952 -- during the Korean War).

Richard Nixon is second lowest, with 24% (7/12-15/1974, 8/2-5/1974 -- during the Watergate scandal).

George W. Bush is third lowest, with 25% (7/18-21/2007 -- during the Iraq War).

Jimmy Carter is fourth lowest, with 28% (6/29-7/2/79 -- during the Iran hostage crisis).

Approval rating never below a level during the president term in office:

John F. Kennedy holds the record never below 56% (9/12-17/1963, 14% undecided).

Dwight D. Eisenhower is second highest with never below 48% (3/27-4/1/1958, 16% undecided).

Franklin D. Roosevelt is second highest with never below 48% (8/18-24/1939, 8% undecided).

Gerald Ford is fourth highest with never below 37% (3/28-31/1975, 20% undecided).

Biggest approval rating difference during the president term in office:

George W. Bush holds the record with 67%.

Harry S. Truman is second highest with 65%.

George H.W. Bush is third highest with 60%.

Jimmy Carter is fourth highest with 47%.

Highest disapproval rating:

George W. Bush holds the record with 71% (7/18-21/2007, 4% undecided, ARG^[3]).

Harry S. Truman is second highest, with 67% (1/6-11/1952, 9% undecided, Gallup Poll).

Richard Nixon is third highest, with 66% (1/4-7/1974, 10% undecided, Gallup Poll).

George H.W. Bush is fourth highest, with 60% (7/31-8/2/92, 11% undecided, Gallup Poll).

Gallup Poll graphs of approval ratings for former Presidents of the United States:

Related concepts

There are several polling concepts related to an approval rating. A disapproval rating measures the number of people who disapprove of a politician, and is essentially the opposite of an approval rating. A net approval rating is the difference between an individual's approval and disapproval numbers. This number is especially useful with individuals who lack name recognition. A candidate which registers 50% undecided, and has a 30% approval versus a 20% disapproval could be judged to have a favorable net approval rating, even though 30% approval looks bad on its own.
There are also favorability rating polls done during a president's tenure that gauge whether people have a favorable impression of the president or not.

References

1. The Gallup poll
2. ABCNews
3. American Research Group
4. Ipsos
5. Tarrance
6. CBSNews
7. CNN
8. Democracy Corps
9. Diageo/Hotline
10. FOXNews
11. The Gallup poll
12. LA Times
13. MSNBC
14. Newsweek
15. NPR
16. Pew Research
17. Quinnipiac
18. Rasmussen Report
19. SRBI
20. RealClearPolitics
21. ABCNews
22. Newsweek
23. PollingReport
24. Rasmussen Report
25. ABCNews
26. ARG
27. American Research Group

See also

★ Public perception and assessments of George W. Bush

External links

★ Historical Presidental Job Performance Ratings - Roper Center

★ Historical Midterm Presidential Approval Ratings Data from Data360

★ PollingReport

★ Pollster

★ RealClearPolitics

★ President Job Approval Ratings