The New York Times recently reported on the results of a US Department of Agriculture study which found that 49 million Americans are now experiencing “food insecurity”. The number, which represents the highest number since the study began tracking fourteen years ago, represents people who are considered either “struggling households with.. very low food security, meaning lack of money forced members to skip meals, cut portions or otherwise forgo food at some point in the year” or those who get enough to eat only by eating cheaper or less varied foods, relying on food stamps, or visiting food pantries and soup kitchens. The Times quotes analysts as saying the unemployment rate, possibly along with higher food prices, is largely responsible for the rise.

We’ve been paying attention to this issue, as well. In September, we asked our survey respondents whether they strongly agreed, somewhat agreed, somewhat disagreed, or strongly disagreed with the statement “I fear I will not be able to provide basic needs such as food or shelter for myself or my family in the future”. Overall, 34% of our sample agreed with this statement, with 9% of our sample strongly agreeing and 25% somewhat agreeing. 25% somewhat disagreed and 38% strongly disagreed. Not surprisingly, those in the lowest income brackets were much more likely to strongly or somewhat agree that they feared they would be unable to provide basic needs for themselves or their family. For those in households earning less than $25,000/year, 22% strongly agreed and 34% somewhat agreed that they feared their ability to provide basic needs. For those in households earning between $25,000 and $35,000/year, 15% strongly agreed and 28% somewhat agreed that they feared their ability to provide basic needs. Those with only a high school education were also more likely to fear their ability to provide, with 12% strongly agreeing and 27% somewhat agreeing.

Within other demographics – gender, age group, ideology, party ID, and whether one lives in a large city, small city, suburb or rural area – the responses largely mirrored the responses of the overall group.

What do you make of the rise in hunger and food insecurity in the U.S? Do you believe the number of those in need of food or food-related assistance is likely to stay high in the next few years? Do you fear your own ability to put food on the table for yourself or your family?

Katy Uncategorized hunger, lifestyle, polls

Courtesy of our friends at The Onion, we are pleased to bring you new results from a truly groundbreaking  Zogby poll!

Poll: 100% Of Grandsons Talented

November 9, 2009 | 14.02

ATLANTA—A Zogby poll of 1,542 American grandparents published Monday found that grandsons were described as “very” to “extremely” talented by 1,542 of the respondents. “Participants in the poll were emphatic in their descriptions of the talents of grandsons in fields as diverse as advertising and sales, choral performance, baseball, talking, crawling, making their beds, video games, and instructing their elders on proper cell-phone use,” pollster Tom Waterton said. “In addition, an overwhelming percentage of grandchildren were described as outgoing, sharp, and looking just like Uncle Andy, you remember Uncle Andy, he was always up to something, too bad he passed so young, he would have loved the grandchild in question.” Sources at Zogby admitted that the survey was incomplete, as several hundred pollsters are still unable to get their assigned grandparents off the phone.

Feel free to leave your own feelings about your talented grandsons in the comments!

Katy Uncategorized polls, satire, video, zogby

The latest Zogby approval numbers for Obama are out and show Obama’s overall job approval rating at 49%, a number unchanged from the last time we asked about Obama’s job approval three weeks ago on October 19. While ratings of Obama among core supporters such as First Globals™, Democrats, and Liberals remain high, ratings among independents have dipped slightly, from 47% approval on September 28, to 43% on October 19, to 40% on our most recent survey. Pollster John Zogby notes that “inside this poll are warning signs for the President…given his drop among independents, who our polling finds include many conservatives, the President has little slack to give from his base.”

The complete press release can be read here. What are your feelings on these numbers? Should Obama be worried about the decline in approval among independents if his overall approval remains steady?

Katy first globals first globals, John Zogby, Obama, politics, polls, war, zogby

We recently included several winning Top Question Tuesday selections on an interactive poll. Stay tuned to this blog as we’ll be releasing the results over the next several weeks! And don’t forget to submit your own nominations for Top Question Tuesday using the box on the right of this blog.

One question asked whether respondents planned to be vaccinated against the H1N1 swine flu virus this year. Overall, 1% of the respondents had already been vaccinated, 31% said they planned to be vaccinated, 54% did not plan to be vaccinated, and 15% were not sure.

Groups that were more likely than average to say they planned to be vaccinated were  those with a college education or higher (36% planned to be vaccinated), those who live in large cities (36%), liberals (42%),  and those over aged 65 years old (38%). However, no demographic subgroup had more than 50% of respondents planning to be vaccinated, and liberals were the only group where those who said they would  be vaccinated outnumbered those who said they would not.

Do you plan on being vaccinated this year? What factors are affecting your decision? Why do you think so many people do not plan to be vaccinated?

Katy Uncategorized education, elections, health, polls, Top Question Tuesday

It’s shaping up to be a good, if expensive, week for survey researchers (and others) who are also Beatles fans. This Wednesday, Harmonix Music Systems will release the greatly anticipated The Beatles: Rock Band , a video game which will allow users to jam along with the Beatles interactively on the game’s electronic instruments. That same day, digitally remastered versions of all Beatles studio albums will be released . Serious aficionados will no doubt snap up the box set featuring 14 of these remastered CDs along with brief documentaries detailing the making of each CD.

In a nine page article in the New York Times describing the making of The Beatles: Rock Band, author Daniel Radosh describes the extensive involvement of surviving Beatles Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney as well as Yoko Ono and Olivia and Dhani Harrison in imagining, creating, refining, and publicizing the game. On the decision to place the Beatles in the center of the interactive video game cultural phenomenon, McCartney comments that “I think it reflects where the Beatles are at.. we are halfway between reality and mythology.” McCartney is also a fan of the game’s interactive nature, noting that “you want people to get engaged… [now people can feel as if] they possess or own the song, that they’ve been in it.”

Meanwhile, some pollsters are hard at work confirming hypotheses that will come as little surprise to Beatles fans: more than forty years after their last group recording, the Beatles are judged to be the most liked musical group in America, and their fans are found in every generation. Pew reports that 49% of those surveyed claimed they liked the Beatles “a lot”, and 81% like the Beatles overall. This is the highest favorability percentage for any of the 20 musical groups or artists included in Pew’s survey. The biggest fans are those between 50 and 64, with 65% of this age group liking the Beatles “a lot”, but fans are found in all age groups: 45% of those between 16 and 25 also like the Beatles “a lot”.

Are you a Beatles fan? Do you think any musical group will ever have a cultural or musical impact equal to the Beatles? Do you plan to purchase or play any of the Beatles-related music or games released this week?

Katy culture, lifestyles, media Beatles, best band ever, culture, entertainment, music, polls, video, work

The current economic recession officially began late in 2007. While there are signs that this bad cycle may have bottomed out, we have been in recession now for more than 20 consecutive months.

Zogby International recently conducted an interactive survey with one of the biggest samples of U.S. adults we’ve ever done. Much of the survey measured how the recession has impacted the lives of people, and their outlook on the future. The quick takeaway is that large numbers of people report a significant impact and most people are not optimistic that they will ever fully recover. But as is always the case, when you look deeper into sub-group responses, generalizations become less clear.

Read all of John Zogby’s column on the impact of the recession at Forbes. com.

Paul economics future, international, John Zogby, polls, recession, zogby

We recently included several winning Top Question Tuesday survey questions on a recent interactive survey. Stay tuned to the blog as we’ll be reporting the results of these questions here over the next several weeks!

One question included on this survey asked whether the respondent agreed or disagreed that any state or region had a right to peaceably secede and become an independent republic. Overall, 35% of those surveyed agreed that a state or region had a right to peaceably secede, while 52% disagreed, and 13% were not sure. Groups that were more likely to agree were conservatives (49%), Protestants (40%), those  between 18 and 29 (45%), McCain voters (46%), and Republicans (43%).

Are there any circumstances where you would support a state or region “peacably” seceding? Do you believe it is possible that a secession attempt could be truly peaceable?

Katy Uncategorized peace, politics, polls, Top Question Tuesday

The public opinion honeymoon appears to be over for the Obama Presidency. Here’s what our latest measure of his popularity shows:

“A new Zogby Interactive survey shows a slight decline in President Barack Obama’s job approval, with 48% of likely voters now approving of the job he is doing as president, down from 51% who said the same in an interactive/telephone hybrid poll conducted in mid-June. Forty-nine percent now say they disapprove of the job the president has done so far in office and 4% are not sure.

“The survey found similar results when likely voters were asked specifically to rate President Obama’s performance—47% give him a positive rating, with 22% rating his job performance as “excellent” and 25% rating it as “good.” But slightly more than half (53%) give the president a negative job performance rating, with 10% who say he is doing a “fair” job as president and 43% who say he is doing a “poor” job—up from 36% who said he was doing a poor job in mid-June. (Zogby uses a four-point scale of excellent, good, fair and poor, and aggregates excellent and good to determine positive ratings.)”

First of all, the two scales are identical showing President Obama with about as many approving as disapproving,” said John Zogby, President and CEO of Zogby International. “What is troubling for the President is not only his slide with voters but that they are re-polarized. He is strong with Democrats but only has 6% approval from Republicans and 40% from Independents. Support from young voters is high (59%) but he is down several points from the margin they gave him in November 2008. His support wanes as voters get older.

Was Obama’s quest for a post-partisan politics naïve?  Are people losing faith in his ability to boost the economy, and in his approach to issues such as health care? Or, do voters still stand very much where they were on Election Day, when Obama won 53% of the vote? Given the Democrats’ edge over Republicans in party identification, does Obama still hold the upper hand?

Paul Uncategorized economy, faith, health, international, John Zogby, Obama, politics, polls, zogby

We at Zogby have polled all over the world – Iran, Kuwait, Malaysia, the Dominican Republic, Panama, Egypt, Argentina, South Korea, Palestine and Lebanon, to name a few places. Recently, we polled the national elections in Albania, a country noted for having hotly contested elections since the fall of communism in 1991. This year’s election pitted the Democratic Party, led by incumbent Prime Minister Sali Berisha, against the Socialist Party led by Edi Rama. Our pre-election polling was remarkably accurate, with our prediction that the Democratic party would win 69 of the 140 seats up for election coming extremely close to the actual 70 seats taken by the party.

You can read more about our Albanian polling in John Zogby’s weekly article in Forbes here.  And from that same article, here are some parting thoughts from John Zogby on polling abroad:

Whenever we get the call to poll in a nation with a young or tenuous democracy, I take it as a great learning opportunity. One thing all Americans seem to agree upon is that democracy is the best antidote to war and international turmoil. Pollsters get the pleasure of watching, from a front row seat, democracy take hold. That’s just one more reason why I love this business.

Katy Uncategorized elections, international, John Zogby, politics, polls, war, zogby

What Iranians Want

Based on polls, the rebellion is no surprise.

Surveying public opinion in Iran is neither easy nor safe. At Zogby International, though, we have successfully measured Iranian opinion in several polls this decade. Based on what we found in those polls, what has taken place in the streets of Tehran following the disputed national election is no surprise; those findings, moreover, imply that Iranians don’t want interference from the U.S.

It is now instructive to revisit our polling data, in these contexts: the unrest in Iran and the desire there for more freedom and democracy, the hostility between the U.S. and Iran during the Bush Presidency, and the potential for Obama’s very different personality and approach to improve the U.S. image among Iranians.

Click here to view the full article 

Paul Uncategorized international, John Zogby, Obama, polls, zogby