Online poll reveals deep generational, political divides over economic outlook

January 8, 2020

Asked whether the economy is doing well, Americans do not see eye to eye, according to a new poll from Brown’s Taubman Center — they do agree that the government cannot be trusted and that school safety is under threat.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Are things looking up for America’s economy? Your answer probably depends on your age and political affiliation, a new poll shows.

The poll results, released on Monday, Dec. 2, by the Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy at Brown University, show that Democrats and Republicans do not see eye to eye on the country’s economy or on the state of its government — and nor do young adults and seniors. 

Editor’s note: The poll detailed in the news story above was re-fielded on Dec. 19 to 23, 2019, after YouGov, which was commissioned to conduct the survey, reported to the Taubman Center that the quality of the original results had been compromised. It is YouGov’s standard practice to exclude recently joined panelists from political tracking surveys, as during election seasons there are individuals who join survey panels with the express intention of distorting results in favor of a particular candidate. Unfortunately, the recent panelist exclusion was inadvertently omitted, which compromised the quality of the sample. While the percentages noted in this story have changed slightly, the re-fielded data continue to corroborate general trends noted here. Full results of the re-fielded December poll are available on the Taubman Center website. 

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Links

2019 Taubman Poll Summary Statistics
Raw Data
Q&A with Director Susan Moffitt
Interactive data tool: