Americans are dissatisfied with a broad range of aspects about the country, according to Gallup's Mood of the Nation poll released Thursday.
The nationwide poll of 1,011 adults taken Jan. 2-22 found that only two of eight societal dimensions were viewed positively: The overall quality of life in the country (65%) and the opportunity for a person to get ahead by working hard (61%). The quality of life dropped 4 percentage points from last year's poll and both factors were well off the record highs of 89% for quality of life in 2001-2002 and 77% for opportunity in 2002.
The findings come as President Joe Biden prepares to give his State of the Union address before Congress on Tuesday night.
Americans are least satisfied with the nation's moral and ethical climate (20%), the way income and wealth are distributed (24%) and the size and influence of major corporations (27%).
The poll also probed Americans' satisfaction with 22 public policy and life areas. Most troubling for Biden is that eight of the areas had satisfaction ratings below 30%, including the state of the nation's economy (25%), which plunged 8 percentage points from last year's poll, and the level of immigration into the country today (28%), which dropped 6 percentage points from last year.
Among party lines, the widest gaps were on the nation's laws or policies on guns, which 56% of Republicans were very satisfied or somewhat satisfied compared with 12% of Democrats and 35% of independents. Also, 62% of Republicans were very/somewhat satisfied with the quality of the environment, compared with 23% of Democrats and 46% of independents.
Regarding the state of the economy, 12% of Republicans said they were very/somewhat satisfied, compared with 41% of Democrats and 22% of independents. Democrats had large margins over Republicans in their views on federal taxes (33%-14%), energy policies (39%-19%), immigration (40%-10%), military strength and preparedness (79%-48%), the role the U.S. plays in world affairs (59%-28%) and the nation's security from terrorism (67%-38%).
Gallup said seven of the eight societal dimensions (all but income/wealth equality) have been measured annually since 2001. The average rating this year is 41%, unchanged from last year's poll and slightly higher than the record-low of 39% in 2021. In January 2020, before the coronavirus pandemic, the average rating was 53%, and it had ranged from 44% to 50% for the prior nine years.
The margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.