Nearly three out of four American adults claim they will stay up the night of December 31 to ring in the New Year. 72% will stay awake, according to the latest Economist/YouGov Poll. But they are much more likely to stay up late if they are young: 87% of adults under 30 plan to stay up and celebrate. As for senior citizens,
just about half (48%) claim instead that they will be in bed while others are singing “Auld Lang Syne.” Just about half, 52%, will be awake.
New Year’s Eve festivities seem nearly as popular with Republicans as with Democrats, and the same percentage of those with low incomes celebrate as do those who are well off. There do seem to be more people celebrating in the East and South than in the Midwest and West, however. And although 68% of self-described conservatives will be up to celebrate, more of the country’s liberals (80%) will be awake. |
 |
The President's Approval Rating and the State of the Country
President Barack Obama’s approval rating at the end of 2009 marks an all-time low for him in the Economist/YouGov poll, and it is the first time more Americans disapprove than approve of the way he is handling his job. This week’s poll was conducted at a time of year – the post-Christmas weekend – when the public should still be in the holiday spirit.
But it also was conducted in the days following the attempted terrorist attack on a U.S. airplane flying from Amsterdam to Detroit. That attack increased Americans’ worries about terrorism – a majority now expects that terrorism will become an even greater threat in the coming year.
Last week, when the Economist/YouGov poll asked Americans whether they thought the threat of terrorism would increase or decrease in 2010, most expected no change. 39% said it would increase. In the last few days, the percentage seeing an increased threat jumped to 50%, a rise of eleven percentage points. The terrorist threat was of particular concern to those 65 and older (59% of them fear an increase), as to Republicans (76% are worried). Half of independents now expect a greater threat from terrorism next year, a jump of 12 points since last week.
|
 |
However, the percentage of Americans who approve of the way the President is handling terrorism has changed little since last week’s incident. 42% approve, and 46% disapprove. Last week, 43% approved, 44% did not.
But it’s still the economy that dominates the public’s thoughts and concerns. 56% say the national economy has gotten worse in the last year, and 33% say it will continue to get worse next year. It remains the country’s most important issue by a wide margin. Just 5% cite terrorism, ranking it sixth, behind the economy, health care, social security, the budget deficit and education. |
|
Americans think 2009 was – on the whole – a pretty bad year for the world. Just 19% said it was a good year while 81% describe it as bad (and nearly a quarter say it was “very bad”). Americans were negative even before the Christmas Day attack; last week 77% of Americans described 2009 as a bad year for the world.
Many Americans saw 2009 as a bad year for their families, too. 54% described 2009 as a bad year for themselves and their families; 46% said it was good. Those under 30 said they fared the best; 61% of them said they and their families had had a good year.
|
|
And overall, it was a bad decade, too, for the world, at least according to 61% of Americans. Only 2% described the last ten years a “very good;” but another 37% said they were “good.”
2009 was not a particularly good year for the President. President Barack Obama began his term with a 61% approval rating in the very first Economist/YouGov poll of his administration. Only 17% of Americans disapproved. As 2009 ends, Obama receives the lowest approval rating of his Presidency so far, and for the first time more Americans disapprove than approve of how he is handling his job.
This week, 45% approve of the way President Obama is handling his job, down from 48% last week. In recent months, his approval rating had hovered between 48% (the previous low) and 50%. 47% now disapprove. The President has suffered a drop in approval from just about all groups, demographic and political. But perhaps most striking has been his loss of support from independents. In January’s Economist/YouGov poll, 64% of independents approved of how his handled the start of his Presidency (and the days leading up to it). Now just 43% do.
|
 |
Interested in more details about the poll? We have a topline summary and complete tabs available now.
Methodology
These results are from a weekly YouGov public opinion poll conducted for The Economist. The poll surveyed 1,000 respondents and was fielded from Decmber 26-29, 2009. Results from interviews conducted online by members of YouGov’s PollingPoint panel are representative of the U.S. adult population. The margin of error for this poll is +/- 3.8%.
