December 7, 2001
Report & Analysis · Other Poll Releases
ATHENS, Ga. — According to a recent Peach State Poll, the two issues cited by Georgia residents as the most important problems currently facing the state are "Education" (21 percent) and "the Economy" (20 percent). "Crime and drugs" registers as the most important problem for only 5 percent of the state’s population, down from other previous state polls. In line with its concern for education, the public believes that spending for public schools should be increased a lot (60 percent) or a little (20 percent), with less than 4 percent of the population favoring any sort of reduction. The public also supports increased spending for higher education in the state with 74 percent favoring some level of increased spending.
Overall, Georgia residents are mostly satisfied with the way things are going in their state. Twenty-six percent say they are very satisfied and another 44 percent say they are somewhat satisfied. This level of satisfaction with life in Georgia is substantially higher than corresponding levels of satisfaction nationally, as shown in a recent Gallup Poll of a national sample (Sept. 14-15, 2001).
Other survey results:
• As of September 2001, Georgia residents are generally optimistic about their personal economic situation for the upcoming year. Asked whether they expect that they will be better off financially, worse off, or about the same in a year’s time, a plurality (42 percent) of Georgians say they expect to be better off, and slightly fewer (39 percent) expect their situation to be about the same. Only 13 percent expect that they will be worse off financially next year. Given reports of a wounded economy at the time this survey was being conducted, these numbers are quite optimistic.
• Thirty-eight percent of Georgians feel that they have improved their personal financial situation over the past four years, and another 40 percent say that their personal financial situation has stayed the same. Only 20 percent say that they are worse off today than they were four years ago.
• The Georgia public has an extremely high level of confidence in its local police (58 percent) and in organized religion (56 percent), but it has relatively little confidence in organized labor (23 percent) and in the country’s health care system (36 percent) (see graph below).
• Georgians believe that the most important problem facing the nation is the issue of terrorism. It should be noted that this data was collected before anthrax scares became everyday news stories but after the events of September 11. Nevertheless, with 60 percent of Georgians citing terrorism as the greatest problem facing the nation today, this issue rates as more salient than any other foreign or defense- related issue in the history of Gallup’s asking this question of a national sample.
These data are taken from the Peach State Poll conducted by the Carl Vinson Institute of Government between September 15 and September 25, 2001. The poll included 802 telephone interviews of randomly selected adults in Georgia. For a sample of this size, the margin of error at the 95 percent confidence level is +/- 3.5 percent.
