Survey: Only 9 Percent of Young Americans Say US ‘Headed in Right Direction’

The survey, released Thursday from Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics, found that less than 10 percent of voters aged 18 to 29 said the country is generally headed in the right direction. Roughly 58 percent of respondents said the country is headed in the wrong direction, The Hill reported.

But more than half of the young Americans indicated in the poll they would vote for President Biden in November’s election. Additionally, 53 percent of the survey takers said they definitely will vote in the presidential election overall.

Biden has been under pressure to improve his polling among young voters after an NPR/NewsHour/Marist Poll this month found former President Trump up 2 points over him among millennial and Generation Z Americans. The president has pushed for student debt relief to court young Americans, who were a critical voting bloc for him in the 2020 race.

In the new poll, the economy was what 27 percent of young Americans said was the national issue that concerned them the most.

On other issues young voters have indicated they care about, 45 percent of registered young Americans said they are following the news about the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Additionally, 45 percent said they don’t know when asked if they believe Israel’s response so far has been justified. Thirty-two percent said they believe the response after the October 7 attacks has not been justified, per the poll.

On immigration issues, 53 percent of young Americans said they believe there is a crisis at the US-southern border. Meanwhile, 50 percent agreed with the idea that immigrants improve the culture of the US, the survey found.

The poll was conducted between March 14-21 and includes 2,010 young Americans. It has a margin of error of 3.02 percentage points.