Young and old disagree on state of U.S. relationship with Muslim world

PALO ALTO, Calif., June 12th, 2009:

Overall, Americans do not think that the U.S. relationship with the Muslim world is changing. However, young and old people hold significantly different opinions on this issue, with young people expressing greater optimism and old people expressing greater pessimism. In a YouGov PollingPoint poll fielded days after President Obama’s June 4th speech in Egypt, 41% of respondents said that they think America’s relationship with the Muslim world is unchanged. 23% think that the relationship is “getting better,” 22% think it is “getting worse,” and 14% are “not sure.”

Looking at this issue by age reveals that 32% of 18 to 29 year olds believe that the relationship with the Muslim world is improving, compared to only 19% of those 65 and older. Only 13% of 18 to 29 year olds believe that the relationship is deteriorating, while 28% of those 65 and older hold this opinion. Attitudes among 30 to 64 year olds are more evenly split between these two extremes, with 21% saying the relationship is “getting better” and 24% saying it is getting worse. At 20%, the proportion of young people saying they are “not sure” is also higher than for other age groups.

Presidential Approval Tracker

The June 7-June 9, 2009 YouGov PollingPoint survey showed 56% approval for how President Obama is handling his job as President, down two points from the previous week.

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Methodology:

These results are from a weekly YouGov PollingPoint public opinion tracking poll conducted for publication in The Economist. The poll surveyed 1,000 respondents and was fielded from June 7, 2009 to June 9, 2009. Results from interviews conducted online by members of the PollingPoint panel are representative of the U.S. adult population. The margin of error for this poll is +/- 5%.