Presidents often are judged by whether things are seen as having improved or worsened during their years in office. Unfortunately for Joe Biden, few Americans have a positive view of how the country has changed since he became president in January 2021. Results from a new survey show that Americans think many aspects of U.S. life — including costs, crime, and corruption — have worsened since the start of 2021.
Most Americans believe that inflation has increased over the past four years, including, more specifically, the costs of food, housing, health care, and gas. Majorities say that rates of poverty, homelessness, and drug addiction have risen. Violent crime is also thought by a majority to have increased, as are hate crime and gun deaths. According to most people, political violence and corruption are up, while national unity is down.
Significant numbers of Americans do see some changes that could be regarded as improvements: More say there has been an increase than decrease in renewable energy usage, health insurance coverage, and stock market returns.
Opinion is closely divided on the direction of other changes, with sizable shares saying they are unsure; these include labor union membership, domestic oil production, public transportation usage, and stock market returns.
Perceptions of how things have changed since the start of Biden's presidency vary based on a person's party identity — Democrats generally hold a more optimistic outlook than Republicans do. Republicans are at least 30 percentage points more likely than Democrats to say there have been increases in illegal immigration, violent crime, terrorism, unemployment, political corruption, and the national deficit. (One partisan gap in the opposite direction: Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say there have been increases in average temperatures.) More Democrats than Republicans say that renewable energy usage — and domestic oil production — have increased.
Looking at partisan gaps in perceptions of what has decreased since the start of Biden's presidency tells a slightly different story. Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say that abortion access has decreased since 2021 — and, in changes viewed as more positive, declines in unemployment and violent crime. Republicans are more likely to believe there have been declines in police funding, domestic oil production, and election security.
— Carl Bialik contributed to this article
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- Snap post-debate poll: 30% of Democrats say 'someone else' would be a stronger candidate than Biden
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See the results for this YouGov poll
Methodology: The poll was conducted online among 2,216 U.S. adult citizens on two separate surveys from August 30 - September 2, 2024 and September 3 - 5, 2024. A random sample (stratified by gender, age, race, education, geographic region, and voter registration) was selected from the 2019 American Community Survey. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given prior to November 1, 2022, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (33% Democratic, 31% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 3%.
Image: Getty
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