Editor's note: This article was originally published in The Surveyor, YouGov America's weekly email newsletter. It has been revised for publication here. Subscribe to The Surveyor for regular updates on YouGov's polling.
About one-third (36%) of Americans say the federal government shutdown is affecting them either a great deal (16%) or somewhat (21%). That's up from 21% saying the shutdown was affecting them a great deal or somewhat a month ago.
Americans are divided in who they blame more for the shutdown: In a choice between congressional Democrats and congressional Republicans, 32% blame Democrats most, 35% Republicans, and 28% both equally. Compared to when we asked this question in the October 17 - 20 Economist / YouGov survey, the share blaming mostly Republicans has fallen 4 percentage points and the share blaming both sides equally has gone up by 4 points.
But over the past month, the net approval of how congressional Democrats have handled the shutdown has stayed low but flat: -25 a month ago vs. -26 today. Over that same time period, net approval on the shutdown has fallen for both Donald Trump (-21 to -27) and congressional Republicans (-23 to -27).
Will the expanding effect of the shutdown affect who Americans blame most? At first glance this appears to be an obvious yes: The more Americans say the shutdown is affecting them, the more likely they are to blame Republicans more than they blame Democrats, according to the latest Economist / YouGov survey.
But Democrats are both more likely to blame Republicans for the shutdown and more likely to say they're being affected a lot by it — 47% of Democrats say they're somewhat or greatly affected, compared to 25% of Republicans. So it could be that the biggest factor behind shutdown blame is partisanship rather than self-reported personal impact.
And that's what appears to be the case — for Democrats. 69% of Democrats who say they are affected a great deal by the shutdown blame mostly congressional Republicans, as do 70% of Democrats who aren't affected at all.
But among Republicans, exposure to the shutdown's impact is associated with a difference in blame. Among Republicans who say they're not personally affected by the shutdown, 82% blame mostly congressional Democrats, compared to 68% of Republicans who are affected a little by the shutdown and 51% of Republicans who are affected somewhat or a great deal.
The Republicans who aren't blaming congressional Democrats most for the shutdown generally aren't blaming congressional Republicans. Instead, many of them blame both sides equally: 11% of those who say they are unaffected, 25% of those affected a little, and 37% of those affected somewhat or a great deal.
Another possible explanation for disparate views of who is to blame for the shutdown among Republicans by how they've been affected is that those who say they've been affected might differ in some other way from those who haven't been. For example, they could be more moderate or more skeptical of Trump.
But that doesn't appear to be the case:
- 24% of Republicans who identify as very conservative say they're affected somewhat or a great deal by the shutdown, compared to 25% of Republicans who say they are conservative but not very conservative and 26% of Republicans who say they are moderate or liberal
- 24% of Republicans who strongly approve of how Donald Trump is handling his job say they're being affected by the shutdown, compared to 22% of those who only somewhat approve of Trump
— Taylor Orth contributed to this article
See the toplines and crosstabs for the October 24 - 27, 2025 Economist/YouGov Poll
Methodology: The poll was conducted among 1,623 U.S. adult citizens. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of U.S. adult citizens. 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, geographic region, 2024 presidential vote, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. 2024 presidential vote, at time of weighting, was estimated to be 48% Harris and 50% Trump. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given around November 8, 2024, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (31% Democratic, 32% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 3.5%.
Image: Getty
What do you really think about President Trump, American politics in general, and everything else? Share your reality, join the YouGov panel, and get paid to share your thoughts. Sign up here.
