Poll: Americans Still Dissatisfied With Country's Direction

Only 27 percent of Americans are satisfied with the way things are going in the United States today, while 72 percent are dissatisfied, according to a Gallup poll.

The latest number, from a survey of 1,015 random adults conducted Feb. 7-10, represents an improvement from the 25 percent satisfaction level in January and 23 percent in December.

The satisfaction level hasn’t had an extended stay above 30 percent since the first half of 2007.

Economic conditions explain much of the low satisfaction level, according to Gallup’s Lydia Saad.

“The economy remains Americans’ most pressing concern when it comes to national matters,” she writes. “Increasing satisfaction could also depend on narrowing the large partisan gap in ratings that has characterized public satisfaction levels for much of the past decade.”

The satisfaction level averaged 26 percent all of last year. The low was 18 percent in January, and the high was 33 percent right after the November elections.

The latest number is far higher than the 18 percent satisfaction level registered February 2009 at the beginning of President Barack Obama's first term. The high since then has been 37 percent, and the low 11 percent, in mid-2011.