While Americans are generally more satisfied with their quality of life ahead of the State of the Union his year than they were last year, Americans’ outlook on race relations have taken a nose dive, according to a new poll.
A new Gallup survey released ahead of Tuesday evening’s address finds Americans markedly more dissatisfied with the state of race relations in the United States.
According to the poll, a mere 30 percent of Americans polled expressed satisfaction with the state of race relations, down 25 percentage points from 2014, when 55 percent said they were satisfied.
American’s view of how safe the country is from terrorism also experienced a 10 percentage point decline over last year, with 59 percent saying they were satisfied this year, compared to 69 percent in 2014.
On the other side of the equation, more Americans expressed positive views of the states of the economy (28 percent held a positive view in 2014, 41 percent expressed satisfaction this year) and their quality of life (74 percent were satisfied in 2014, 84 percent in 2015) than last year.
Other interesting findings from the Gallup poll include declines from last year in satisfaction over the level of immigration (-5 percentage points, from 38 percent to 33 percent ), Social Security and Medicare (-5 percentage points, from 42 percent to 37 percent), the federal tax rate (-6 percentage points, from 38 percent to 32 percent), and policies to control crime (-6 percentage points, from 51 percent to 45 percent).
Topics that experienced increases in satisfaction include the ability to get ahead (+6 percentage points, from 54 percent to 60 percent) and the affordability of healthcare (+5 percentage points, from 38 percent to 43 percent).
The poll was conducted from Jan. 5 – 8 among 804 adults and has a margin of error of +/-4 percentage points.
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