Gallup to stop tracking presidential approval ratings after 88 years

WASHINGTON — Gallup will soon no longer measure presidential approval, the public opinion polling agency confirmed Wednesday to USA Today and The Hill.

Starting this year, Gallup will no longer publish “favorability ratings of political figures.” It said in a statement to USA Today that the decision “reflects an evolution in how Gallup focuses its public research and thought leadership.”

The Gallup Presidential Approval Rating is frequently cited by media outlets measuring public opinion of the president’s performance.

The latest Gallup data for President Donald Trump in early December showed a 36% approval rating. 

The change is part of “a broader, ongoing effort to align all of Gallup’s public work with its mission,” the company wrote in an email to USA Today. “For nearly a century, Gallup’s U.S. polling has provided rigorous, independent insight into the American people — their perspectives, values and lives. Leadership ratings have been part of Gallup’s history. At the same time, the context around these measures has changed.”

Gallup said the ratings are “widely produced, aggregated and interpreted, and no longer represent an area where Gallup can make its most distinctive contribution.”

“Our commitment is to long-term, methodologically sound research on issues and conditions that shape people’s lives,” the company wrote to USA Today.

The company said its work will continue through the Gallup Poll Social Series, the Gallup Quarterly Business Review, the World Poll and more.

The Washington, D.C.-based company began tracking presidential job performance 88 years ago, during the Depression era.

“To ensure his independence and objectivity, Dr. (George) Gallup resolved that he would undertake no polling that was paid for or sponsored in any way by special-interest groups such as the Republican and Democratic parties — a principle Gallup upholds to this day,” according to Gallup’s website.

More than 4,000 organizations use Gallup’s workplace performance platform, according to the company’s website. It’s unclear when the polling will officially end.