The ANES Guide to Public Opinion and Electoral Behavior

Approval of Performance of Congress 1980 -2016

Click, hold and drag your mouse on the chart to zoom in on a region. Right click to return the chart to its original state.

Download the Chart

About this trend:

Data Table

  '80 '82 '84 '86 '88 '90 '92 '94 '96 '98 '00 '02 '04 '06 '08 '10 '12 '14 '16
Approve 34
(472)		 34
(485)		 53
(1025)		 44
(965)		 52
(917)		 36
(710)		 28
(631)		 32
(572)		 46
(774)		 48
(610)		 52
(939)		 64
(931)		 46
(563)		 ** 26
(593)		 ** 21
(1252)		 ** 25
(1066)
Disapprove 48
(672)		 49
(697)		 35
(672)		 38
(820)		 34
(603)		 55
(1077)		 63
(1416)		 60
(1078)		 47
(792)		 43
(549)		 33
(595)		 34
(492)		 40
(484)		 ** 63
(1451)		 ** 74
(4307)		 ** 72
(3063)
Don't Know 18
(257)		 17
(235)		 12
(229)		 18
(384)		 14
(249)		 9
(185)		 9
(196)		 8
(139)		 8
(134)		 9
(110)		 15
(262)		 2
(36)		 14
(165)		 ** 11
(264)		 ** 5
(292)		 ** 3
(121)
N 1401 1417 1926 2169 1769 1972 2243 1789 1700 1269 1796 1459 1212 0 2308 0 5851 0 4250

Percentage Within Study Year
Table 5C.4.
Source: VCF0992 in the ANES Cumulative Data File dataset, weighted with VCF0009z
Link to see data by mode (2012, 2016)

Percent among demographic groups who responded:

Approve
Disapprove
Don't Know

Question Text:

"Do you approve or disapprove of the way the U.S. Congress has been handling its job?"

Note:

2012 and 2016 data are for the combined (face-to-face and internet) sample.

For 2012, the 'Don't Know/Other' category represents face-to-face Don't Know cases only (in the 2012 Web instrument, a Don't Know category was not present).

Return to the ANES Guide Index.