Joe Biden · Deep dive

Standing

42.5mean approval

Second-lowest of the seven. The last reading at or above 50% is July 2021.

How was he regarded, measured over time? Across 50 Gallup readings the mean is 42.5, second-lowest of the seven presidencies computed here. Seven readings sit at or above 50% and all seven fall in the first six months; the line is crossed once, downward, in August 2021 and never again. What this page will NOT do is compare the spread between best and worst reading — at 12.7 readings a year this is the sparsest series in the set, and a narrow spread is what sparse sampling produces on its own.

Six of six — the base set is complete

Every subject at this tier is asked the same six questions, fixed before the subject is chosen so the set cannot be picked to suit an argument. The others written for this record are Private Money, The Output, Reach, Affiliations and The Legal Record. With this one the base set is complete, so the overlay dives — the ones specific to what this subject has been — are unblocked. None of them could have been started before now.

The same question is answered for Donald Trump and Barack Obama, from the same pollster — and with this dive all three records at this tier have a complete base set for the first time.

Back to the full record.

42.5

mean approval across the term

Second-lowest of the seven presidencies computed here

Jul 2021

last reading at or above 50%

About six months in; nothing after it returns

86%

of readings below 50%

43 of 50. A share, which a sparse series does not distort

12.7

readings a year

The sparsest series of the seven — a quarter of the rate before it

range comparisons on this page

At this sampling rate a narrow spread proves nothing

All 50 readings

One fall in the second year, then three years close to flat

Every reading Gallup publishes for this presidency. Points at or above 50% are marked; there are seven and they are all in the first six months.

Day 0 is 20 January 2021. Gallup reports a field period rather than a single day; the start of each period is used consistently so the spacing between points is comparable.

Mean of the published readings in each calendar year

Year	Readings	Mean	Published low–high
2021	12	50.2	42–57
2022	11	40.9	38–44
2023	12	39.8	37–43
2024	14	39.5	36–45
2025part year	1	40.0	40–40

Reading it

One fall and then a plateau. The mean drops about ten points between the first year and the second and then moves 1.4 points across the three years that follow. Whatever happened to this presidency’s standing happened in 2021 and did not continue; the rest of the term is close to a straight line. The 2025 row is a single reading taken in the final fortnight and is marked rather than averaged into a trend.

Read 2026-08-11. This dive belongs to the record it sits inside, and it completes that record’s base set. How opinion divides by party as a subject in its own right is owned by Political Polarization.