From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section deals primarily with the United States and does not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article or discuss the issue on the talk page.

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 1 Presidential job approval in the United States 1.1 Current President (George W. Bush): 1.2 Historical comparison: 1.2.1 Highest approval rating: 1.2.2 Lowest approval rating: 1.2.3 Approval rating never below a level during the president term in office: 1.2.4 Biggest approval rating difference during the president term in office: 1.2.5 Highest disapproval rating: 2 Related concepts 3 References 4 See also 5 External links

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.

Polling group's* last poll for the President George W. Bush:
Date(newest first)	Polling Group	Approval	Disapproval	Other
9/11-13/2007	Rasmussen	39%	60%	1%
9/7-8/2007	Gallup	33%	62%	5%
9/4-7/2007	ABCNews/Washington Post	33%	64%	3%
8/18-21/2007	American Research Group	28%	65%	7%
8/1-2/2007	Newsweek	29%	63%	8%
7/9-11/2007	Associated Press/Ipsos	33%	65%	2%
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%
5/16-20/2007	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]	9/4-7/2007	33%	64%	3%
American Research Group[3]	8/18-21/2007	28%	65%	7%
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[11]	9/7-8/2007	33%	62%	5%
LA Times/Bloomberg[12]	6/7-10/2007	34%	62%	4%
NBC/WSJ[13]	6/8-11/2007	29%	66%	5%
Newsweek[14]	8/1-2/2007	29%	63%	8%
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]	9/11-13/2007	39%	60%	1%
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:

ABCNews Poll[21]. April/22/2001 to June/1/2007. Newsweek Poll[22][23]. February/9/2001 to July/12/2007. Rasmussen Poll[24]. May/1/2006 to July/11/2007. CBS News/New York Times. February 2001 to June 2007.

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[25]	24 10/10-14/07, Reuters/Zogby 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

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).

Harry S. Truman holds the record with 22% (2/9-14/1952 -- during the Korean War).
George W. Bush is second-equal lowest, with 24% (10/10-14/2007 -- during the Iraq War).
Richard Nixon is second-equal lowest, with 24% (7/12-15/1974, 8/2-5/1974 -- during the Watergate scandal).
Jimmy Carter is fourth lowest, with 28% (6/29-7/2/79 -- during the Iran hostage crisis).

John F. Kennedy holds the record never below 56% (9/12-17/1963, 14% undecided).
Dwight D. Eisenhower is second-equal highest with never below 48% (3/27-4/1/1958, 16% undecided).
Franklin D. Roosevelt is second-equal 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).

George W. Bush holds the record with 68 percentage points.
Harry S. Truman is second highest with 65 percentage points.
George H.W. Bush is third highest with 60 percentage points.
Jimmy Carter is fourth highest with 47 percentage points.

George W. Bush holds the record with 71% (7/18-21/2007, 4% undecided, ARG^[27]).
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:

President George W. Bush. President Bill Clinton. President George H. W. Bush. President Ronald Reagan. President Jimmy Carter. President Gerald Ford. President Richard Nixon. President Lyndon B. Johnson. President John F. Kennedy. President Dwight D. Eisenhower. President Harry S. Truman. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

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.

• Public perception of George W. Bush

• Historical Presidental Job Performance Ratings - Roper Center
• Historical Midterm Presidential Approval Ratings Data from Data360
• PollingReport
• Pollster
• RealClearPolitics
• President Job Approval Ratings